Traffic starts on new 2,7 km of Struma Motorway in the Zheleznitsa - Simitli section

Tonight the traffic on the newly constructed 2.7 km of Struma Motorway in the section Zheleznitsa - Simitli /from km 370+400 to km 373+100/, which is a subdivision of Lot 3.1 Blagoevgrad - Krupnik will be launched. The permit for the use of the section was handed over today by the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works architect Ivan Shishkov. Together with Deputy Minister Zahari Hristov and the Chairperson of the Board of the Road Infrastructure Agency Engineer Ivo Ivanov he was on the route.

The traffic in the direction of Sofia will be entirely on the newly built section, and in the direction of Kulata the traffic will pass on the first class road I-1 Sofia-Kulata and partly on the motorway.

“We have fast-tracked the work to get the stretch up and running and to ease the traffic in the area, albeit minimally,” the minister said. He explained that the landslide before the Zheleznitsa tunnel, which was identified back in October 2020, already has a reinforcement project ready and is pending approval from the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works. The idea is to release the traffic in two stages, and in the next stage, within about 3 months, the builder will complete the first stage of strengthening, so that all traffic in the direction of Sofia, including through the tunnel, can be released, it became clear from the words of architect Shishkov. This will greatly ease the traffic in this direction.

The builder has committed to completing the strengthening of the entire landslide, most likely in the middle of next year, so that the entire section can be launched, the minister said. He said the other landslide, on the other side of the tunnel, is small and will be resolved before traffic starts, and it does not pose a serious problem for the opening of the route.

“Some time ago I said, unfortunately, that we will have a tunnel but we will not have a road to it and that turned out to be true,” the regional minister recalled. He added that he had already commissioned the design of the landslide last year. This particular stretch is part and example of the chaos with road infrastructure in the country.

“When we don’t have complete projects we come to this situation - the motorway ends suddenly and we struggle in some form to launch temporary traffic organisation to relieve traffic as much as possible, even on the few motorways that are being built,” Ivan Shishkov stressed.

He reiterated that all sections and all constructions in Bulgaria, in which the state invests, are put into operation with a permit for use.

To solve the problem of traffic through the Kresna Gorge, the minister said that hard work is being done, but there is currently a procedure where the Ministry of Environment and Water is the lead and a final technical decision has to be taken on the way traffic will pass there.

The entire Lot 3.1 Blagoevgrad - Krupnik, of which the new section is a part, is 12.6 km long. It is divided into two sections, located on either side of the future Zheleznitsa tunnel and the track adjacent to it. Their construction is at the final stage.

Traffic on the first section of Lot 3.1, 7 km long /from km 359+000 to km 366+000/, from Blagoevgrad to the roundabout with the I-1 Sofia - Kulata road before the under-construction Zheleznitsa tunnel, was launched in May 2019. The second section from the village of Zheleznitsa to the village of Krupnik /from km 370+400 to km 376+000/ is 5.6 km long. It is divided into two subdivisions. The first subdivision from the village of Zheleznitsa to Simitli /from km 370+400 to km 373+100/ is now open for traffic and is 2.7 km long. The last 2,9 km subdivision from Simitli to Krupnik /from km 373+100 to km 376+000/, will be constructed after the confirmation of the decision for the construction of Lot 3.2 Krupnik - Kresna and depending on the court decision on the ruling of the Ministry of Environment and Water No 9- OS/01.08.2022.

The contractor of the construction of the section is the alliance “Company under the Obligations and Contracts Act Motorway Struma 3.1”, which includes GROMA HOLD EOOD, EVROPEISKI PATISHTA AD, “AB AD - HASKOVO, “HYDROSTROY” AD, Alve Consult Ltd. The construction supervision is carried out by the Company under the Obligations and Contracts Act “SN Motorway Struma Lot 3.1”, which involves.

The project for the construction of Lot 3.1 Blagoevgrad - Krupnik of the Struma Motorway is co-financed by the Cohesion Fund of the European Union and the national budget through OP Transport and Transport Infrastructure 2014-2020.