After building the toughest segment of Albania’s Durres-Kukes highway, American-Turkish consortium gets to tackle Kosovo’s main east-west highway. Full details of the contracts still pending government-company discussions.
TIRANA, Jan. 19 – Bechtel-Enka, the Turkish-American consortium that build the most difficult portion of the Durres-Kukes highway in Albania, will get to construct the Kosovo portion of the same highway that links the land-locked country to the Adriatic, officials in Prishtina said this week.
Kosovo transportation officials selected Bechtel-Enka to construct the Morine-Merdare highway, which starts at the Albanian border, cuts Kosovo in half via Prishtina and ends up at the Serbia border in northeastern Kosovo. The road is 117 kilometers long.
An initial assessment indicates the highway will cost 700 to 800 million euros, but if the increasing costs of the highway in Albania are any indication, it could end up costing more than 1 billion euros.
Kosovo’s government want to use about 200 million euros profits from Kosovo Post-Telecommunications and hopes to get loans from international financial institutions to finance the rest of the project.
Other companies from Austria, Italy, Greece and Turkey had shown interest, but Kosovo’s decision came down on who could start working within a month of the tender’s end.
Because Bechtel-Enka is already on the ground in northeastern Albania, near Kosovo, it was the only one that met that condition.
It also gave a lower cost, 600 million euros, than the only other bid, 1 billion euros, from the runners up in the bidding, Austria’s Strabag. Kosovo’s officials said they would approach the Austrians if the talks with Bechtel-Enka fail.
Kosovo Transport Minister Fatmir Limaj said the highway works will last 36 months.
The government’s spokesman, Memli Krasniqi, said further details about the full cost, length and highway crossing points will be decided later, during special committee meetings with Bechtel-Enka representatives.
According to the ministry, the new highway will pass through eight municipalities and pavement will cover a total of 1,062 hectares of land.
Mr. Limaj said the project could create more than 10,000 new jobs. But that’s only the start of the economic impact, economic experts say. Analysts told the Kosovar press this week that getting the highway built fast would have a strong positive impact on Kosovo’s economy, increasing exports and facilitating trade. Also, selecting the Turkish-American company would build stronger economic ties between the new country an two of its strongest allies.
The consortium, which is made up of Bechtel International Inc. of California and Istanbul-based Enka built the most difficult 60-kilometer of the Durres-Kukes highway in Albania’s northern mountains, including a tunnel that is 5.5 kilometers long.
Albania built the highway under a contract signed in September 2006 in part to improve ties with Kosovo, as the road shortens the trip from Kosovo to the Adriatic.
The new highway is 45 kilometers shorter than existing route to Kosovo and travel time was significantly reduced when the Albanian portion of the highway was finished.
