HARBIN, May 17-- Construction of the main body of the Chinese side of a railway bridge linking China with Russia has been completed, authorities said Tuesday.

The bridge across the Heilong River, sometimes known as the Amur River, connects Tongjiang city in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province with Nizhneleninskoye in Russia. The main bridge spans 2,215 meters, with 1,900 meters in China and a designed annual shipment volume of 21 million tonnes.

Construction began in February 2014 and is due to be completed by the end of 2016. Construction on the Chinese side was basically concluded at the end of April at a total cost of 2.1 billion yuan (322 million U.S. dollars), according to China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Co., Ltd.

The work was funded by the state-owned China Railway Corporation (CRC) and Heilongjiang provincial government.