Thirre tunnel long closure for repair

TIRANA, Oct 12 – The Transport Ministry reported that the Thirre tunnel, part of the newly built Rreshen-Kalimash road, which links Kosovo with the Albanian seaport of Durres, will be closed for traffic for several weeks due to repair demands.
The Ministry said the tunnel will be closed for further construction work.
“The tunnel must be closed in order to allow the contractor to pursue its work to stabilize a short segment were an unstable geological mass is exerting pressure on the wall. This is an unpredicted situation,” the ministry said in a press release.
The opening of the tunnel of the new highway connecting Albania and Kosovo was inaugurated in June only two days before the parliamentary elections.
Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, Turkish Premier Receep Tayyip Erdogan and Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha took part at two ceremonies for the tunnel and the Rreshen-Kalimash road segment turning into electoral rallies by the Albanian governing leader ahead of the June 28 parliamentary poll.
Albania’s largest public works project, the four-lane highway is expected to strengthen the already deep ties between Albania and Kosovo, where more than 90 per cent of the population of 2 million is of Albanian descent.
Hundreds of thousands of Kosovars cross the border for summer holidays in Albania and Kosovar businesses also use it for traffic towards the Adriatic Sea. Albania has set the port of Shengjin as one to serve their needs.
The road has also sparked political infighting with the opposition claiming its high cost as a reason to believe the government had behaved in a corrupt way after making no prior feasibility study and also spending too much money for a poor country. The road segment may have cost about one billion euro from little more than 400 million it was stated to cost.
The road segment is being built by the US-Turkish consortium Bechtel-Enka.