Minister Lilyana Pavlova set out the construction of Section 2 of the Western arc of Sofia

The Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, Lilyana Pavlova, and the head of the management board of Road Infrastructure Agency, dipl.eng. Lazar Lazarov, gave start to the construction of Section 2 of the Western arc of Sofia Ring Road.
The section has a length of 5.3 km. It begins after the bridge over Kakach River and ends at
the intersection with the North Speed Tangent. Consortium “European Roads” is the contractor of the construction works. The total contract value is BGN 101,999,866.66, vat included. The construction is funded under Operational Programme “Transport”.

During the official ceremony minister Pavlova stated that the section though small in length is an extremely important part of the major road directions that are currently being constructed. ‘This is one of the busiest directions not only in the capital and in Sofia Region, but also throughout the country, because the Western arc is a crossroad connecting important and quite busy directions as here passes the entire transit traffic in the direction of Kalotina border checkpoint, Hemus motorway, Trakia motorway and the future North Speed Tangent’, noted the Regional Minister.  She added that the construction of the Western arc is a very important investment in relation to conflict-free, trouble-free and flawless transition of the entire heavy transit traffic, as well as the workers and residents in the area.

Minister Pavlova noted the symbolics with the number 22. ‘On 22nd August 2012 the construction of the Western arc was set out and the period for its implementation was 22 months. Today, on 22nd  October, even though with a delay caused by the previous government, construction of a new element is started while completing another extremely important and crucial section,’ explained the Minister.
The project implementation is carried out by phasing scheme. The construction works started with funding under the Operational Programme "Transport 2007-2013", however, the completion would be paid under the new Operational Programme "Transport and transport infrastructure" 2014-2020. The Minister reminded that this week the Council of Ministers adopted a decision for concluding a contract and the Managing Authority of the Programme to support the provision of funding from the new programming period in order to complete the project. This would guarantee that it would be entirely financed by the European structural and investment funds totaling BGN 103 million.

Minister Pavlova presented the construction permission to dipl.eng. Lazar Lazarov, instructing him to closely monitor the time frame for its implementation and quality of work. She wished the constructors to work around the clock if needed in order to complete the project before the term set if possible, but really qualitative, so that to ease the traffic as soon as possible. According to the contract’s terms the construction works should be completed within 10 months.