Kosovo signs 1 billion dollar highway deal

PRISHTINA, April 15 – Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said a 1 billion dollar deal was signed with American-Turkish consortium Bechtel-Enka to build a highway across Kosovo.
Kosovo’s government officially signed this week its agreement with Bechtel-Enka, the American-Turkish company, to start work on building Morine-Prishtina- Merdare highway, which is a continuation of the Durres-Kukes highway.
The agreement provides that the highway be built within 36 months, and the first works will start next month. The highway starts 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, experts said.
Thaci said the project, the most ambitious in Kosovo’s recent history, is “a dream come true” for the newly independent country.
The project set to start this month will link Kosovo with Albania in the west and Serbia in the east and could create up to 10,000 new jobs.
The Bechtel-Enka consortium — made up of San Francisco, Calif.-based Bechtel International Inc. and Istanbul-based Enka – also built a 65-kilometer section of a highway in northern Albania.
The planned Kosovo highway would link up with that road.
Kosovar Minister of transportation, Fatmir Limaj, said Wednesday in Prishtina that the construction Vermice-Merdar highway will begin on April 25.
The projected speed along the entire length of highway in Kosovo is 120 km per hour, whereas in areas where environmental criteria allows it, the speed limit will be 140 km/hour.
Highway will have dynamic signals (display), communication systems and noise barriers.
The highway project, linking Kosovo with Albania in the south and Serbia in the north, is considered very important for Kosovo. It provides access to the Adriatic Sea and Durres port and creates preconditions for the movement of goods and people and economic development