Work on a new road in Laos will take until 2012 to complete. The 278km road will connect Vientiane through Borikhamxay to Xieng Khuang. The project is costing US$130 million and work commenced in October 2008. At present around 76% of the project has been carried out and work is due to start on the last two of the 18 bridges in total along the new route.