Construction work on the new 1.84-kilometer bridge along the Jur River in Western Bahr el Ghazal State is ongoing.
The Tianyuan Construction Group Company Limited and the China Aid for Shared Future are working on the bridge as a donation from the Chinese government to the government of South Sudan.
The managing director of the Tianyuan Construction Group Company Limited Hou Yueli said the construction will be completed in 36 months.
“The project started on 31st of January 2021 and will be accomplished on July 30th, 2023,” said Yuelei.
Meanwhile, Western Bahr el Ghazal State minister of roads and bridges in Muhamaden Abubakar Muhamaden welcomed the donation and said they will oversee the construction to completion.
"The money comes from them and the constructor comes from China. Our role as the ministry at the state level is to oversee the project,” said Muhamaden.
He added that the ministry engineers will be deployed at the construction site to ensure quality during the process.
Muhamaden noted that challenges are facing the new project but in collaboration with the constructor, they will be resolved.
“The challenges facing the bridge is the opening of the road that could link the new bridge from East to West, is the issue of big trees on the road. But as a ministry, we are trying our level best to ensure all possible means,” he said. “There were also some places allocated for investments and when we carried out the first field visit with my engineers, we agreed with the lands minister that those who were owning these lands could be compensated.”
The minister further noted that they are in consultation with the national ministry to know the full cost of the bridge.
The bridge is expected to link Juba to the greater Bahr el Ghazal region after the old Jur River bridge developed technical problems. The new bridge is located 200 meters north of the old bridge.
In September last year, South Sudan and China signed a new cooperation deal for the renovation of the Jur River Bridge.