The construction of the North tangent of Sofia’s ringroad will start in April, as the chairman of the board of the Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA) Stefan Chaikov announced on Wednesday (January 8th). The route is about 16 kilometers long, and seven kilometres of it road facilities that will surely bring a lot of trouble to the consortium that is contractor: HPVS – FTA (consisting of Hydrostroy, Vodstroy 98 and related companies to businessman Vasil Bozhkov).
„The challenge is huge, there are three large knots. I have organized a meeting with the mayor of Sofia, to clarify the joint coordination as we need to solve many problems. Particularly those associated with underground infrastructure,“ said Mr. Chaikov.
The construction of the North Tangent was one of the risky projects financed under the operational program Regional Development. Only at the end of last year was it appointed as allowed by Brussels and so Bulgaria managed to grant aid amounting to 120 million euros. In practice, the object is a key to alleviate the traffic of the choked by cars capital city. The segment will start from the highway Hemus and will reach the junction leading to the village of Mramor and the turnoff to Lomsko Shosse. The goal is it to provide a convenient link between the north-western and south-eastern districts of Sofia. This will make possible the passage of transit traffic in the hinterland west to Serbia and then to Western Europe, and will connect the corridors within the European TEN-T network and airport Sofia.
Stefan Chaikov also announced that two tenders for the motorway from Sofia to Kalotina are to be announced. The section from Kalotina to Dragoman will be financed under the new instrument of the European Union „Connected Europe“ and that of Dragoman to junction Hrabarsko through the Operational Programme Transport.
Road Infrastructure Agency is working to provide 600 million euros to build the speed road from Botewgrad , via Mesdra, Vratsa and Montana to Vidin on the Danube river. After its completion and that of the highway Struma, the track on the European Corridor 4 will be fully ready. These plans are quite far into the future. The pressing task now seems to be the overhaul the old stretch of Trakia highway. In spring the rehabilitation at the entrance of Sofia, near Pazardzhik and around Plovdiv will be launched. In total 44 km will be renewed, the deadline for implementation will be 18 months. The funding will be under the Transit Roads 5 and the traffic will not be impeded on Fridays, Sundays and public holidays, as then a special organization of the movement will be created.
Interestingly, because of the mild weather, the Road Infrastructure Agency will be able to set aside some funds for the repair of other roads. A total of 8 million levs were saved from the sum envisaged on winter maintenance of the national network since the season started on November 15 instead of November 1, and in the last two months of 2013 there was very little snow.
Road Infrastructure Agency was able to finish the year without a single euro in obligations to road construction companies, while at December 31, 2012 this amount stood at 40 million levs, Mr. Chaikov added.
The BANKER
