Struma motorway stretch delayed by four months to July 2014
The stretch of Struma motorway between Sandanski and Koulata in southwestern Bulgaria will be finished four months behind schedule, the country’s Regional Development Minister Dessislava Terzieva said on September 17, as quoted by television station bTV.
The reason for the delay, according to the report, is that the construction crews unearthed a cable network that had to be moved, she was quoted as saying. The ministry hopes to sign a contract to that end by mid-December, she said.
So far, only a quarter of the 14.7km stretch has been completed since the start of construction in April 2012. According to the contract with Greek firm Aktor, picked to build the motorway stretch, the work was to be completed within 23 months, at a cost of 67.2 million leva (about 34.3 million euro).
Struma motorway links Bulgarian capital city Sofia to the border with Greece, at the Koulata-Promachonas check-point, and on with Thessaloniki and northern Greece.
For the duration of construction, the traffic has been bypassed through the town of Petrich, which has led to the deterioration of the town’s streets and other existing road sections near the border check-point, bTV quoted Petrich mayor Velyo Iliev as saying.
He said that Bulgaria’s road infrastructure agency promised to carry out repairs this autumn on the road sections affected the worst.
(Photo: Joana Levieva-Sawyer)
