TIRANA, March 27 – Almost four years after its opening to traffic, the Tirana-Elbasan highway is on track to finish as the Albanian government has reached a deal with the Islamic Development Bank over a new $35 million loan to complete the first 14 problematic kilometers of the highway whose progress has been halted by massive landslides and extra financing needs.
Linking the capital city to Elbasan, central Albania, the highway is considered key to boosting connectivity with southeastern Albanian region of Korà§a as well as neighbouring Greece and Macedonia, with a huge impact on increasing trade exchanges and tourism revenue.
The new 20-year loan the Albanian Parliament is about to approve brings the highway’s total cost to about $335 in a wholly Arab-funded project that is considered the second largest infrastructure project Albania has completed in the past decade after the Durres-Kukes-Morine highway linking Albania to Kosovo completed in late 2010. The latter is set to become the country’s first toll road by next year as a concessionaire has already been picked to charge average tolls of about Euro 5.
The new four-lane highway that cut travel distance between Tirana and Elbasan from a previous 48 kilometers to only 31 kilometers, has been partially operational since 2013 when a double-bore 2.5 km tunnel was built by Greece’s Aktor for $83 million.
The Albanian Road Authority says the highway is on track to finish by the end of this year unless new landslide and weather conditions make its completion impossible.
“The Tirane-Elbasan is a road project inherited with huge technical problems. The Albanian Road Authority had to complete a lot of work so that its technical council approved all detailed projects proposed by the contractor, especially regarding the main segments of Mullet, Iba, three other landslides along Iba and the segment linking the tunnel to Kerrabe,” Dashamir Xhika, the head of Albania’s Road Authority has told daily Panorama in an interview.
“The fund approved in the new deal will go to all landslides that have taken place in this road axis to give a final solution and guarantee the safety of this road. We expect the segment from the TEG roundabout to Ibe to finish by next spring. Currently, this segment is being paved,” says Xhika.
“The whole segment will finish by the end of this year, but we have to be careful when talking about this because it’s a huge and tough project with many unexpected issues that could emerge during its implementation because of the terrain but also weather conditions,” he adds.
Back in 2014, massive landslides following uncontrolled explosions and difficult terrain led to the evacuation of some 30 households and caused damage to local businesses.
The highway is being completed by a joint venture between Kuwait’s Copri Construction and Greece’s Aktor.
Overwhelmingly funded by the Islamic Development Bank with $258 million and other Arab financial institutions such as the Saudi Fund for Development and the OPEC Fund for International Development, the highway has already considerably cut distance between capital Tirana and Elbasan, the third most populated region of Albania, and a hub to the southeastern Albania.
