Launch of tunnel of Durres-Morine road project

TIRANA, Feb. 4 – Prime Minister Sali Berisha launched Sunday the start of the work of the construction of the tunnel of the Rreshen-Kalimash project from the U.S.-Turkish joint venture.
The ceremony was held near the North Tunnel Portal of the Rreshen to Kalimash Motorway, being constructed by Bechtel Enka Joint Venture. This site is located to the east of Kukes, 12 km from the main Kukes to Puke highway. Berisha inaugurated construction of the Rreshen to Kalimash Motorway by triggering the first blast for excavation of the 5.65 km Tunnel. The 4 lane, 60.85 km motorway is being constructed by the Bechtel Enka Joint Venture and will be complete in July 2009. It is the largest infrastructure project in Albania’s history and will form part of the Durres to Morine highway. This ceremony signifies commencement of the permanent works on the project and start of tunneling activity. The 5.65 km, twin bore tunnel will be one of the longest ever constructed in the Balkans and will require the excavation of some 1 million cubic meters of rock. Bechtel Enka will employ in excess of 2500 personnel to complete this project, this workforce will include a significant percentage of Albanians. The tunnels will be excavated in accordance with the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM) which utilizes the inherent strength of the rock mass to support the excavated tunnel opening. Under this method, only minimal ground support is required and the amount of ground support used at any location in the tunnel is determined by the rock conditions present at that location. This is a faster and more economical way to excavate and support the tunnel because under other tunnel excavation methods, the ground support throughout the tunnel is based upon the worst-expected rock conditions. To perform this tunnel excavation, the Bechtel-Enka Joint Venture is importing Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer L2C Drill Jumbos from Sweden to drill the holes for blasting and installing the ground support elements. In addition to the construction of the tunnel the project will require the construction of over 35 bridges. The total length of bridges will be approximately 4500m and the highest bridge is currently anticipated to be 100m high. These bridges will be constructed using 40m long precast concrete beams which will be prefabrication on a site built adjacent to the motorway. In addition to the beam prefabrication yard, plants will also be built locally which will be used to produce concrete for structures, quarries and crushing plants to produce aggregates and asphalt plants to produce asphalt for surfacing. So as not to adversely affect local communities BEJV is building three camps along the motorway where the construction personnel will live.
In October Albania signed a 418 million Euro contract with the U.S.-Turkish joint venture to build the four-lane stretch of highway that will shorten the route to neighboring Kosovo, in the biggest ever infrastructure project in the tiny Balkan country. Bechtel International Inc., based in San Francisco, and Enka, based in Istanbul, Turkey, will build the 60.85-kilometer road segment, including the tunnel. The funding will come from the Albanian government and other international institutions and banks, according to transport ministry officials, though no details on the names of the companies or on loan terms were given. Kosovo, a U.N.-run province in Serbia, is important to Albania because most of the tourists visiting the western Balkan country are ethnic Albanians from Kosovo or Macedonia as well as expatriate Albanians returning from other parts of Europe. The portion of the highway being built by Bechtel is part of a 170-kilometer highway to Kosovo. The completed highway will run from the port city of Durres _ 35 kilometers west of the capital Tirana _ to the town of Kukes, 200 kilometers northeast of Tirana, and then to the Morina border crossing point. Albania, one of Europe’s poorest countries, has hopes of one day joining the European Union and NATO. The new road will be about 45 kilometers shorter than existing roads and will shorten the travel time _ which can now take up to six hours _ to two hours. The current road, which has only two lanes, is full of potholes and winding turns, making it virtually impossible to drive at average speeds above 40 kph.