This highway can be traversed in a few hours, while in 2002 the trip took over nine hours. Laos is connected across the Mekong River to Thailand by First and Second Thai-Lao Friendship Bridges. Vientiane is linked to Nong Khai by the First Friendship Bridge. The Third Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge began construction in March 2009 linking Nakhon Phanom Province in northeastern Thailand and Khammouane Province in Laos. It was completed on 11 November 2011. Laos opened a highway connection to Kunming in April 2008. The Fourth Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge opened to the public on 11 December 2013 linking Kunming to Bokeo, Laos and Chiang Rai. It reduces travel time to five hours.   , the Vientiane–Vang Vieng Expressway, the first expressway in Laos, is 70 percent complete. Authorities expect to open the road to traffic before Lao National Day on 2 December 2020. Construction began at the end of 2018 and was initially scheduled to finish in 2021, but will be completed early. The road, which includes twin tunnels almost 900 metres long through Phoupha Mountain, will shorten the route by 43 km as compared with the existing Route No 13. The expressway toll will be 550 kip per kilometre, or about 62,000 kip for a one-way trip between Vientiane and Vang Vieng. The Vientiane-Vang Vieng expressway is the first section of a planned expressway from Vientiane through the northern provinces to Boten in Luang Namtha Province, which borders China. About of navigable water routes exist in Laos, primarily the Mekong and its tributaries. There are an additional of water routes, which is sectionally navigable by craft drawing less than . Laos has an ocean-going merchant marine consisting of one cargo ship of . Laos has of pipelines for the transport of petroleum products. Laos possesses 52 airports, of which nine have paved runways. Of the airports with paved runways, Wattay International Airport in Vientiane has a runway length of . Of the remainder, four have runways to length, and a further four have lengths between and . Of the airports without paved runways, one has a runway length of more than . Seventeen have runway lengths between and , leaving 25 with a lengths below .