The project has been approved by the Managing Authority of the Operational Programme "Transport 2007-2013" on 10.01.2012 and by the European Commission on 22.11.2012

Deadline: The project is planned to end on 30.09.2014.

Beneficiary: National Company "Railway Infrastructure"

Budget:

Total cost of the project: 663 316 861.61 BGN

Awarded grant under OP "Transport": 281 279 750 BGN

Sources of grant funding:

EU Cohesion Fund: 225 023 800 BGN

National co-financing: 56 255 950 BGN

Co-financing NCRI: 110 520 250 BGN

The aim of the project

The project "Reconstruction and electrification of the railway line Plovdiv - Svilengrad along Corridors IV and IX, Phase 2: Parvomay – Svilengrad” in Bulgaria is a railway project aimed at improving infrastructure and increasing permissible speed of the rail line to 160 km/h (200 km/h for trains with lurching baskets) for passenger trains, and 120 km/h for freight trains, installation of equipment for signalling and construction of the whole line from Plovdiv to Svilengrad, including to the borders of the Republic of Bulgaria with Turkey and Greece, in accordance with the principles of ETCS level 1.

This project is a part of a larger project of reconstruction of the entire road between Plovdiv and the Turkish and Greek borders with bridge (transitional) funding between Pre-acession ISPA programme (2000 to 2006) and Operational programme "Transport" 2007-2013.

The transitional project under Operational Program Transport (OPT)  aims at overall completion of the project for reconstruction and electrification of railway line Plovdiv-Svilengrad started and funded until the end of 2010 under the ISPA program.

The OPT project consists of the following components:

Reconstruction and electrification of the railway section Dimitrovgrad – Harmanly (from km 231+560 in between railway stations Jabalkovo – Dimitrovgrad to km 266+000 in between railway stations Simeonovgrad - Harmanly), including stations Dimitrovgrad and Simeonovgrad and all the stations and stops in between, approximate length of railway 36 km;

Reconstruction and electrification of the railway section Harmanly – Svilengrad (from km 266+000 in between railway stations Simeonovgrad - Harmanly to km 297+750 in between railway station Svilengrad – border with Republic of Turkey), including the stations of the towns of Harmanly and Svilengrad, and all the stations and stops in between, the approximate length of the railway 34km and rehabilitation and electrification of railway line Svilengrad – border with Republic of Greece with an approximate length of 4 km;

Construction of new traction substations in Simeonovgrad and Svilengrad and extension of the existing traction substation in Dimitrovgrad;

Other works related to the overall completion of the project "Electrification and reconstruction of railway Plovdiv – Svilengrad – Turkish/Greek border".

Technical parameters of the project:

Length of reconstruted rail road-bed in km: 96.5 km

Removed crossings: 20

Railway stations with renovated signaling systems: 7  

Installed contact network on km railway: 100.2 km

Increasing design speed up to 160 km/h for passenger trains and up to 120 km/h for freight trains;

Signalling system ERTMS level 1, with centralized traffic command and control system installed in Plovdiv for the entire line to the Greek and Turkish borders.

The whole route is with GSM-R communications;

Information system for passengers is provided at each station.

Location

Place of project implementation is South Central area – the region of Haskovo town and the regions of the municipalities of Plovdiv and Svilengrad.

Project executors

Position 1 – “Reconstruction and electrification of the railway section Dimitrovgrad – Harmanly (from km 231+560 in between railway stations Jabalkovo – Dimitrovgrad to km 266+000 in between railway stations Simeonovgrad - Harmanly), including stations Dimitrovgrad and Simeonovgrad and all the stations and stops in between, approximate length of railway 36 km”

The cost of the contract for construction under Position 1: 142 800 000.00 BGN without VAT

Executor: Terna SC (Greece)

Construction supervision: Consortium between TIPSA Ltd, SISTRA, LOUIS BERGER, RUBICON ENGENEERING and TRADEMCO

Position 2 – “Reconstruction and electrification of the railway section Harmanly – Svilengrad (from km 266+000 in between railway stations Simeonovgrad - Harmanly to km 297+750 in between railway station Svilengrad – border with Republic of Turkey), including the stations of the town of Harmanly and Svilengrad, and all the stations and stops in between, the approximate length of the railway 34 km and rehabilitation and electrification of railway line Svilengrad – border with Republic of Greece with an approximate length of 4 km”

The cost of the contract for construction under Position 2: 122 322 351.46 BGN without VAT

Executor: Association"Railway infrastructure 2011"

Construction supervision: Consortium between TIPSA, CORNETS, LOUIS BERGER, RUBICON ENGINEERING, and TRADEMCO

Position 3 – "Construction of new traction substations in Simeonovgrad and Svilengrad and extension of the existing traction substation in Dimitrovgrad"

The cost of the contract for construction under Position 3: 21 368 018.03 BGN without VAT

Executor: "Start engineering" SC

Construction supervision: Consortium between TIPSA, SISTRA, LOUIS BERGER, RUBICON ENGINEERING and TRADEMCO

MAIN ACTIVITIES FOR the POSITION 1 and POSITION 2:

• Working design and construction of the installations and the bottom construction of the railway-bed for a one way line for the entire area, according to the Project of the Customer;

• Working design and construction of drainage systems;

• Working design and construction of railway facilities, including bridges, culverts, supporting walls, etc.

• Working design and construction of crossing facilities at the intersections of the railway infrastructure - such as roads and pedestrian overpasses and underpasses, passages for agriculture needs etc.

• Construction parameters that allow top speed of 160 km/h for conventional rolling stock and a speed of 200 km/h for trains with lurching baskets: minimum horizontal curve radius of 1500 m (in the border crossing area – 800 m), maximum longitudinal slope of 10‰, axle load 22.5 t/axle, gauge clearance GC, minimum radius of vertical curves 15000 m;

• Working design and construction of railway stations and stops, including repair/construction of reception/storage buildings and other buildings in their areas;
• Working design and construction of electrification of the newly built infrastructure and connection the systems of the contact network and electricity power supply at the boundaries of the segment with the systems of neighboring adjacent segments, including the necessary for this purpose the equipment;
• Working design and elimination/reconstruction of the intersections with any other infrastructure and facilities of the communal economy that affect in a whatever way the construction;
• Working design and construction of new and separating posts and new alternative outflanking line between them;
• Complete remediation of the old railway line after disassembly;

• Laying new upper construction of the railway and the railway switches using rails type 60 E1 and re-inforced concrete sleepers with elastic fixing without pads and new ballast, making rail road without joinders, chaining and benchmarking.

• Working design and construction of electronic wagon scales at the railway stations Harmanly and Svilengrad;

• Working design and construction of sound-proof fences in urban areas;

• Measures for protection of the environment and in accordance with Programme "Natura 2000".

• Testing and commissioning of the constructed infrastructure;

MAIN ACTIVITIES for POSITION 3:

• Working design and construction of 2 new traction substations;

• Working  design and construction of high-voltage power transmission lines connecting new substations with National Electric Company (NEC) systems;
•  Working design and construction of road/rail connections to the new substations;
• Working design and construction of the duty point (subregion) in the area of traction substations in Svilengrad;
• Working design and construction an extension of the existing traction substation in Dimitrovgrad;

• Working design and construction of the connection of the traction substations with the systems of the contact network and sections’ posts;

• Working design and elimination/reconstruction of the intersections with any other infrastructure and facilities of the communal economy that affect in a whatever way the construction;