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Construction on Lot III of Trakia Highway will be launched at the beginning of August

Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010

Rossen Plevneliev, the Bulgarian Regional Development Minister, has announced that the construction of Lot III of the Trakia Highway will be launched on August 2, followed a month later by the construction of Lot IV.

Construction on Lot II of the same motorway, the stretch spanning from Nova Zagora to Stara Zagora, started on May 3 2010. Magistrali Trace consortium, led by companies from Trace Group, one of Bulgaria's leading road-building firms, won the tender after it tabled the lowest bidding price of 137.9 million leva for the 32km stretch of motorway.

"In the following year, the Regional Development Ministry will proceed with the construction of the Trakia and Maritsa motorways. Additionally, Lyulin Highway is expected to be completed by the middle of 2011," Plevneliev told Bulgarian media on July 26 2010.

Plevneliev said that seven more tenders are expected to take place in September 2010, adding that the companies which will be entrusted with their construction are to be announced in March 2011.The minister added that 500 million euro are required for the construction of these lots.

The concept for a motorway from Sofia to Bourgas dates back to 1964, while the actual construction was launched in 1975. The Sofia – Plovdiv stretch of motorway took 10 years to build.

The stretch between Nova Zagora and Stara Zagora, 32km in total, is scheduled for completion by the spring of 2012.

Plevneliev said that a total 31km of Maritsa Highway would be completed in 2010, as the Bulgarian state allocated about 32.5 million leva for the completion of the easternmost part of the facility this year, for the section spanning from Orizovo to the Captain Andreevo border checkpoint with Turkey. That section, which is divided into four different lots, is worth 209 million euro in total.

Maritsa Highway is part of the European corridor IV, linking Bulgaria's second-largest city of Plovdiv to the Turkish border. It has a total length of 117km, of which 38km have been completed to date.

Source: sofia echo