Government approves contract with Bechtel for Rreshen -Kalimash road segment

TIRANA, Sept. 27 – The Albanian government approved Wednesday a 250 million euro contract with the U.S. company Bechtel International, Inc. Enka to build the 55-kilometer Rreshen-Kalimash road segment in the north, considered as the most difficult part. The Rreshen-Kalimash road segment includes a 6-kilometer tunnel and is part of the 170-kilometer long Durres-Kukes-Morine segment that will link Albania with neighboring Kosova. Work for the four-lane Rreshen-Kalimash segment will start in October, according to Prime Minister Sali Berisha speaking at the government meeting Wednesday. Authorities said they would make public in the next days the terms of the contract. “There is a very positive news today, special and important not only for our country but for the region as well,” said Berisha at the government meeting. “We approve the contract of procurement of the Rreshen-Kalimash highway won by the construction giant Bechtel International, Inc-Enka.
It is one of the most serious works with international consultancy. That is a much welcome news and an extremely serious solution,” he said. Bechtel won the tender launched at the Financial Times and in competition with some other international companies.
Berisha’s government put as a priority the construction of a new and shorter road link to Kosova until the end of its mandate in 2009. It will be funded from the domestic budget but also with loans from international financial institutions. The Durres-Kukes-Morine link is 44 kilometers shorter than the existing roads and it will shorten the trip time from 5-6 hours to two hours. Kosova is important to Albania because most of the tourists visiting the western Balkan country are ethnic Albanians from Kosova and Macedonia as well as expatriate Albanians returning from other parts of Europe. Berisha said that the new highway would serve not only Albania and Kosova but also Macedonia and southern Serbia.