Struma motorway

Struma motorway shield

Struma motorway
Автомагистрала „Струма“
Struma motorway highlighted in red and yellow
Route information
Part of E79
Length 86 km (53 mi)
156 km (97 mi) planned
36 km (22 mi) under construction
Major junctions
From Pernik,
To Kulata, Greece
Location
Major cities Pernik, Dupnitsa, Blagoevgrad, Sandanski
Highway system
Motorways in Bulgaria
Pan-European corridor IV highlighted in red

The Struma Motorway (Bulgarian: Автомагистрала „Струма“, Avtomagistrala "Struma") is a motorway currently under construction in Bulgaria. The motorway is located in the Yugozapaden area in South West Bulgaria, and follows the route Pernik-Dupnitsa-Blagoevgrad-Sandanski-border to Kulata in Greece.[1] It is part of the Pan-European Corridor IV and also is part of Е79, that runs from Miskolc (Hungary) to Thessaloniki (Greece), via the Romanian cities of Deva and Craiova. This project is under the European Union's Ten-T Priority Projects.

The Struma motorway extends the Lyulin motorway (A6), running from Sofia to Pernik. The total planned length of Struma motorway is 173.8 km. [2] About 86.7 km of the motorway are already built and are in service, from Pernik junction to Blagoevgrad and from Sandanski to the village Kulata, nearby the border of Greece.

The highway will be around 29 m wide, and will have two traffic lanes on each side. There will be two asphalt-surfaced lanes in each direction, two emergency halt lanes, and a 3.5m median dividing lanes. [3]

The motorway is named after the Struma River.

History

The motorway was divided into 5 construction lots: lot 0 is Pernik-Dolna Dikanya, lot 1 is Dolna Dikanya-Dupnitsa, lot 2 is Dupnitsa–Blagoevgrad, lot 3 is Blagoevgrad–Sandanski and lot 4 is Sandanski–Kulata. The construction of lot 1 started in September 2011 and was completed in July 2013,[4] while the construction of lot 4 started in April 2012 and was finalized in July-August 2015.[5] A contract for the construction of lot 2 was signed in February 2013,[6] and it was completed in October 2015.[7]

Due to the high construction value of the project the construction of lot 3 has been set back to the 2014–2020 financial period and only a conceptual design had been drafted before that. Further, lot 3 has been divided into 3 sub-lots — 3.1 (Blagoevgrad—Krupnik), 3.2 (Krupnik-Kresna or Kresna Gorge) and 3.3 (Kresna-Sandanski) and is being tendered and managed by NCSIP.[8][9] The Blagoevgrad-Krupnik section is to be approximately 13 km, and is worth 186 million leva. The design and build contract for the Kresna—Sandanski section was signed on 25 September 2015, and the estimated year of completion for the entire motorway is 2020; this section is worth about 281 million leva (around 144 million €). [10] [11]

When built, the motorway will provide two driving lanes in each direction and wide emergency lanes so as to meet European motorway standards. The motorway will follow the gorge in a combination of viaducts and tunnels in order to have the least environmental impact to the nature in the Kresna Gorge. The four sections of the motorway are supposed to cost 1.2 billion € because of the difficult construction in the gorge.

Kresna Gorge Environmental Issue

Part of the motorway has to pass through the Kresna Gorge, a protected Natura 2000 site.[12] The gorge is a habitat of many endangered species of flora and fauna, which will be fragmented and disturbed by the motorway splitting the gorge. Currently, the roads in the Kresna Gorge, including the major I-1 road, are narrower than the motorway, but kills approximately 70 animals each day. Non-governmental organizations, including institutions such as Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE), Balkani Wildlife Society, CEE Bankwatch Network, Green Policy Institute, and Centre for Environmental Information and Education, have all expressed concern through petitions, protests and studies, insisting the motorway to go around the gorge in order to avoid further harm to the wildlife and their habitats.[13] Initially, the government approved a 15-km long tunnel to bypass the gorge, but this tunnel project was cancelled and instead other alternative options emerged. The latests alternative is to build a second carriageway east of the gorge, at the foot of the Pirin mountain. This plan, however, is also opposed by the NGOs, as one carriageway is to remain in the gorge.

People's livelihoods may also be disrupted in various ways. Around 300 people rely on restaurants and other businesses scheduled for demolition, as they are in the path of the motorway.[14]

Financing

The Struma Motorway is mainly financed by the European Union. In 2012, the European Commission approved of a EUR 274 million contribution for the highway; the total investment is approximately EUR 324 million. The Liulyn Motorway was partially financed by The Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession (ISPA) and the Daskalovo-Dolna Dikanya section of the highway received a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB). [15]

Exits

Exit km Destinations Notes
287,4 , Pernik In service
295,2 Studena In service
299,1 Bosnek In service
303,2 Staro selo In service
305,4 Dolna Dikanya In service
319,5 Dupnitsa-north In service
327,4 Dupnitsa-south, Kyustendil In service
341,6 Boboshevo In service
353,3 Blagoevgrad-north, Kocherinovo In service
359,0 Blagoevgrad In service
Zheleznitsa tunnel Project
Zheleznitsa Tendered
Simitli, Bansko Tendered
Krupnik Tendered
Kresna Gorge Tunnel Planned
Kresna Design & build contract signed
405,6 Strumyani Under construction by 2018
416,7 Sandanski Under construction by 2018
425,1 Petrich, Melnik In service
431,2 General Todorov In service
432,8 Marikostinovo In service
438,5 Kulata; Thessaloniki, Athens Greece In service

References

  1. ↑ "Struma Motorway, Bulgaria". roadtraffic-technology.com. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
  2. ↑ "Struma Motorway, Bulgaria". trimis.ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
  3. ↑ "Struma Motorway, Bulgaria". roadtraffic-technology.com. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
  4. ↑ "Откриват лот 1 на магистрала „Струма"" (in Bulgarian). news.ibox.bg. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  5. ↑ "Пускат движението по директното трасе на лот 4 от АМ "Струма"" (in Bulgarian). infrastructure.bg. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  6. ↑ "Construction begins on the section Dupnitsa-Blagoevgrad of Struma motorway" (in Bulgarian). api.government.bg. Archived from the original on 2013-04-07.
  7. ↑ "Магистрала "Струма" стига днес до Благоевград" (in Bulgarian). Dnevnik. 22 October 2015.
  8. ↑ "Great interest in the tender for lot 3 of Struma motorway". infrastructure.bg. 29 January 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  9. ↑ "Bulgaria to start building 65-km section of Struma motorway in summer 2015". wire.seenews.com.
  10. ↑ "Строителството на лот 3.3 Кресна – Сандански на АМ"Струма" започва през пролетта на 2016 г." (in Bulgarian). infrastructure.bg. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
  11. ↑ "Building of Kresna - Sandanski stretch of Struma motorway to begin in September". balkaneu.com. Retrieved 2017-11-08.
  12. ↑ "Natura 2000". ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
  13. ↑ "Save Kresna Gorge, Bulgaria!" (PDF). foeeurope.org. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
  14. ↑ "Save Kresna Gorge, Bulgaria!" (PDF). foeeurope.org. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
  15. ↑ "Commission approves EUR 274 million co-investment for the Struma motorway in Bulgaria" (PDF). ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 2017-11-01.

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