Croatia on Tuesday opened the long-awaited Peljesac Bridge, which connects two parts of the country’s Adriatic Sea coastline divided by Bosnian territory. Photo: IC Photo

People run over the Peljesac Bridge Tuesday near Croatia’s Komarna village. The bridge offers easier access to the country’s most important tourism destination — the ancient walled city of Dubrovnic. Photo: VCG

A total of 150 extra-long steel tubular piles, each up to 124 meters long, make up the bridge’s foundation. It took two and a half years to complete the bridge. Photo: Xinhua

With six cable towers, the bridge is 2.4 kilometers long and 55 meters high. Photo: VCG

The bridge is a multi-span extradosed cable-stayed structure with an orthotropic steel deck. About 70,000 tons of steel pipe piles and steel box girders from China were transported to the construction site, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency. Photo: Xinhua

A total of $357 million was provided by the EU for the project, which was built by a Chinese state-owned company for $533 million. Photo: VCG

The final elements of the steel construction get installed on the bridge near the village of Brijesta on the Peljesac Peninsula in July 2021. Photo: VCG

The project is one of Croatia’s biggest infrastructure projects, and the first of this size to be built by a Chinese company on EU soil, according to Chinese state broadcaster CGTN. Photo: VCG