The construction of the third lot of Struma highway is one of the toughest and most complex infrastructure projects that are being implemented on the territory of our country, said the Deputy Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Petar Kirov during the public consultation on the preliminary design of the road section, which was held at the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy. The meeting was attended by the Minister of Regional Development Desislava Terzieva, the Executive Director of National Company "Strategic Infrastructure Projects" Asen Antonov, representatives of the Managing Authority of Operational Programme "Transport", the Road Infrastructure Agency, and teachers among others.
"The project is approved by a number of European institutions and the most crucial issues have been resolved”, said
Several technical solutions were presented. The track will be divided into three subsections, the first going from Blagoevgrad to Krupnik with length of about 21 km. Two kilometers of them will be a tunnel (called "Zheleznitsa") with two lanes in each direction at the total amount of around 200 million lev.
The second subsection is divided into two sublots, one of which is the heaviest and includes the construction of a tunnel with a total length of over 15 km. The indicative value of the facility is about 1.1 billion lev.
The third subsection goes from Kresna to Novo Delchevo, and its length will be about 23 km. The cost of its construction is about 200 million lev.
The new highway is to have six separate stop-by areas and three helipads, which are to be used in case of accidents, as well as a tunnel management center and a highway management center.
The tenders are to begin no later than the middle of next year. The project has an approved application form, which is part of the EIA report and Natura compatibility assessment and will be financed under the Operational Programme "Transport and Transport Infrastructure" 2014 – 2020.