OFFICIALS said over the weekend that a second bridge linking downtown Phnom Penh to the Chroy Changvar peninsula would be constructed with Chinese aid.

On Saturday, Minister of Public Works and Transport Tram Iv Tek and representatives from the Chinese Bridge and Road Corporation signed an agreement to build a new bridge parallel to the Cambodian-Japanese Friendship Bridge, which currently crosses the Tonle Sap river.

"A new Chroy Changvar bridge will start construction next year, and its construction will cost US$27.5 million," said Thy Sophorn, deputy director general of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport and a member of the bridge’s construction commission.

He estimated that the construction of the bridge, designed to ease traffic jams in the city centre, would take around 38 months.

According to project documents obtained by the Post, the 719-metre-long bridge, to be funded by a loan from the Export-Import Bank of China, would require the construction of a new roundabout on the eastern bank of the river, and that it would be linked by 267-metre and 274-metre access roads.

At Saturday’s ceremony, officials also signed an agreement for a $46.25 million loan to refurbish a 95-kilometre stretch of National Road 41 in Kampot province.

The project does not have a scheduled start date.

The news of the construction of the second Chroy Changvar Bridge comes after Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that Japan had decided to fund the construction of the $131 million Neak Loung Bridge on National Road 1, which will be completed in 2015.

Last week, the government announced plans to build a $30 million bridge, also funded by the Chinese government, connecting Takhmao town in Kandal province with Kien Svay district.

In March, officials inaugurated another Chinese-funded bridge project, the $28.8 million Prek Kdam Cambodia-China Friendship Bridge, in the north of Kandal province.