Chairman of the Management Board of the Road Infrastructure Agency Stefan Chaikov and the representative of the Polish company Mosti Eva Panamanian signed a contract last week for the design of the tunnel under Shipka peak, the central Balkan, central Bulgaria. The contract is for 104,232 levs without VAT, and funding was provided under the Operational Programme Transport and the period of performance is 120 calendar days.
The facility will have a length of 3,220 m, a width of 10.5 m and a height of 4.8 m. The contractor will have to make extensive geological and hydrological studies. It is also expected to propose the most appropriate locations for the start and the the end point of the tunnel, respectively from the side of Gabrovo and Kazanlak. The company is also to present options for ventilation, lighting, plumbing and power supply, as well as road signs of the tunnel. It will contain a TV and telephone system, allowing constant communication with a central control centre.
However, whether there would be actual construction, is another matter. During the period in office of GERB, the building of the tunnel under the mountain peak was repeatedly cited as a priority. The project was divided into two major phases. The first involved the construction of the leading road to the tunnel plus the bypass road around Gabrovo and was to be financed under the Transport programme in its current edition, while the second one – for the construction of the tunnel itself – was left for the new programming period.
With the advent of the new government the situation changed dramatically. Now the facility is not listed anywhere in the draft project of the Operational Programme Transport (2014-2020). Ignoring it, however, can create serious troubles. Former Minister for EU funds and now MEP from GERB – Tomislav Donchev warned a long time ago that Bulgaria had committed itself in connection with the accession to the EU to build this tunnel, and if it does not, it will be penalized. To this theme, the current construction minister Desislava Terzieva responded by saying, „We ha not frozen the project, nor are we planning to freeze it. As I said before, the tunnel under Shipka is a priority for the government.“
Anyway, what is currently under construction is just the bypass of Gabrovo and the junction with it, which together has a length of 23 km. The draft has been divided into five stages. Implementation of the first – the rehabilitation of a section of 7.6 km was completed in late 2013. Today they are working on the second stage with a length of 3.2 km. It includes the repair and reconstruction of the existing road as the route passes on the west of the square of Voynovo and ends at the village Chehlevtzi.
The last sections provide for entirely new construction to be done and the the fifth one includes the tunnel under Shipka itself. Assurances of the Road Infrastructure Agency are that it is in the plan for construction by 2020. The only problem is that it is not clear where the money will come from.
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