New Sava Bridge: 2,600 Tons of Steel, 40 Percent of Weight

Builders have so far worked about 2,600 tons of steel into the new Sava bridge, close to 40 percent of the structure’s total weight. What happens next now hinges on a single delivery: a new crane sent from China by the contractor, the Chinese company PowerChina, has been stopped in the Romanian port of Constanta.

The crane was supposed to reach Serbia by river. Drought and a low Danube water level put an end to that plan, forcing the contractor to arrange road transport for the remaining leg of the journey. It is expected to arrive in Belgrade in mid August.

Why Is Everything Waiting on One Crane?

Without it, workers cannot lift and inspect the steel section damaged in April’s accident, so there is still no word on whether that piece will be repaired or replaced. Almost all of the bridge’s steel components are already on site, with only the cables, the tension elements that carry the span, still to be delivered. The parts that have arrived are being assembled and prepped for installation in the meantime, but steel assembly is not running at full capacity and will stay that way until the replacement crane reaches the platform.

Shipping heavy construction machinery by river is cheaper and simpler than by road, since a crane of this class has to travel in pieces and needs special permits for road transport. Losing the river route costs both time and money, and site deadlines slip by however long the rerouting takes.

What Happened in April

In April 2026, a crane collapsed on the construction site. One worker died, the site was temporarily shut down, and one of the steel elements was damaged. Assembly of the structure then stood still for weeks. The accident has set the project back by roughly four months.

The contractor maintains that this will not meaningfully shift the final deadline. According to a PowerChina representative, “the pace of this project is dictated by construction of the piers in the river, not by work on the steel structure.” In other words, the critical path runs through the water, not through the assembly yard.

Where the Work Stands Now

Three of the four bank piers are finished. Work has now moved to the two piers in the riverbed itself, the most technically demanding part of the build. Crews are operating under strict precautions against unexploded ordnance, a regime that slows down every step on site.

A snapshot of the river piers:

• at the pier toward Savski Venac, all piles have been driven, and cofferdam assembly, the temporary watertight structure built in the river around the future pier, began a month ago
• on the first cofferdam, which will run 19 meters deep, roughly half of the sheet piles, the steel plates driven side by side to form the structure’s wall, are in place
• at the river pier closer to Novi Beograd, 16 of 21 piles have been driven, with cofferdam formation expected in September

Piles are the load-bearing elements driven through river sediment down to solid ground, carrying the weight of the pier. Foundation concrete cannot be poured until the piles are finished and the cofferdam is watertight.

Approaches and the Deadline

Work on the bridge approaches is proceeding in parallel, and most of it is done on the Novi Beograd side, where the retaining structure is in its final stage and embankment construction is being prepared. On the Savski Venac side, one more pier and part of a retaining wall still need to be poured.

The original completion deadline has already been missed. Officials now point to the first half of 2027, with the end of March 2027 mentioned as a completion date. No precise date has been announced yet and one is expected only later on.

The next verifiable milestone is the crane’s arrival in Belgrade in mid August and the lifting of the damaged element. Only then will it be clear whether that piece gets repaired or replaced, and only then can steel assembly return to full capacity.