On December 29, the 6th section of the Kazakhstan Bab Highway, the first project undertaken by Sinohydro Bureau 16 under its own brand in Kazakhstan, was officially opened to two-way traffic after 18 months of construction, fully fulfilling the important instruction given by the Head of State of Kazakhstan at the expanded meeting of the Kazakh Government at the beginning of 2024 and presenting a gift for the upcoming New Year 2025.

The 6th section of the Kazakhstan Bab Highway, with a total length of 47 kilometers, is located in the territory of Zhambyl Region, Kazakhstan, and has been upgraded from the original two lanes to a Class 1B two-way four-lane asphalt concrete road. The highway is an important component of Kazakhstan's south-central corridor and the main passage connecting the southern and central regions of Kazakhstan. At the same time, the highway is also a concrete achievement of the synergy between China's Belt and Road Initiative and Kazakhstan's Nurly Zhol new economic policy.

At the beginning of 2024, at the expanded meeting of the Kazakh Government, the Head of State explicitly instructed that the goal of two-way traffic opening for all sections along the M36 highway (from the capital Astana to the largest city Almaty) must be completed in 2024. To ensure the timely completion of the Head of State's instruction, all employees of the Kazakhstan Bab Section 6 project team of Sinohydro Bureau 16 worked with full vigor and forged ahead. Despite many adverse factors such as shortages of local labor and main materials and frequent unforeseen heavy rainfall, they found ways to overcome various difficulties encountered in construction, setting the best record of completing more than 15 kilometers per month for each of the earthwork surface layer, subbase, and C4 graded crushed stone base, and achieving an excellent result of more than 200 kilometers of single-lane asphalt paving completed in the year. Following the completion of asphalt pavement paving for the entire line on November 30, the project team pressed on and, in freezing temperatures of more than ten degrees below zero, assisted the subcontractor in completing the steel guardrail installation and site cleanup tasks required for the two-way opening, ultimately becoming the construction unit that started last but achieved two-way road opening in only 18 months, winning high praise from the project owner and the World Bank, the project lender.