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 follows the route Pernik-Dupnitsa-Blagoevgrad-Sandanski-border to Greece. 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.

The Struma motorway extends the Lyulin motorway (A6), running from Sofia to Pernik. The total planned length of Struma motorway is 156 km. It ends at the border crossing to Greece, at the village of Kulata. 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 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,[1] while the construction of lot 4 started in April 2012 and was finalized in July-August 2015.[2] A contract for the construction of lot 2 was signed in February 2013,[3] and it was completed in October 2015.[4]

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.[5][6] A design and build contract for the Kresna—Sandanski section was signed on 25 September 2015.[7]

When built, the motorway will provide two driving lanes in each direction and wide emergency lanes so that it meets European motorway standards. The motorway will pass the gorge in combination of viaducts and tunnels in order to be least environmentally destroying 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.

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

Gallery

References

  1. ↑ "Откриват лот 1 на магистрала „Струма"" (in Bulgarian). news.ibox.bg. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  2. ↑ "Пускат движението по директното трасе на лот 4 от АМ "Струма"" (in Bulgarian). infrastructure.bg. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  3. ↑ "Construction begins on the section Dupnitsa-Blagoevgrad of Struma motorway" (in Bulgarian). api.government.bg.
  4. ↑ "Магистрала "Струма" стига днес до Благоевград" (in Bulgarian). Dnevnik. 22 October 2015.
  5. ↑ "Great interest in the tender for lot 3 of Struma motorway". infrastructure.bg. 29 January 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  6. ↑ "Bulgaria to start building 65-km section of Struma motorway in summer 2015". wire.seenews.com.
  7. ↑ "Строителството на лот 3.3 Кресна – Сандански на АМ"Струма" започва през пролетта на 2016 г." (in Bulgarian). infrastructure.bg. Retrieved 5 October 2015.

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