New leg of Kosovo highway open to traffic

TIRANA, Nov. 1 – The Vermice-Prishtine-Merdare road, a continuation of the Durres-Kukes highway linking Albania to Kosovo, will have its first 38 kilometres open to traffic in a few days, Kosovo government officials have confirmed.
The highway, which is being built by Bechtel-Enka, the same US-Turkish consortium which built the Rreshen-Kalimash highway in Albania, will have the first three segments inaugurated on November 12, in a ceremony bringing together officials from Kosovo and the region, said Kosovo Infrastructure Minister Fehmi Mujota during an inspection visit this week.
“This is only the beginning because we are also working to complete the fourth and fifth sections and we’ll continue working to reach Prishtina,” Darren Port, the project’s manager says as quoted by the Kosovo Infrastructure Ministry.
“Expropriation has gone very well thanks to not only the extraordinary work done by the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Ministry of Finance, but also to the goodwill of the Kosovar citizens who have welcomed this project,” says the Economic Initiative for Kosovo.
The Kosovo part of the road which has been nicknamed the “Highway of the Nation” started in April 2010, when an official ceremony was held. The highway, set to be completed in September 2013, is 117 km long and will cost around 800 million Euros.
The new highway is considered very useful for Kosovo’s economy and business. It will connect to the existing highway in Albania, providing a modern and fast connection of Kosovo with the Sea Port of Durres. This highway also connects the north of Kosovo with Serbia and Nis (corridor 10).
The motorway starts from Morine at the Albanian border then going through Prizren, Suhareke, Duhel, Malisheve, Arlatte, Komorane, Sllatina and reaching Prishtina. It is curving around Prishtina and ending in Besi, a small town on the north of Prishtina.
ENKA is building 89 km of this route with a total length of 103 km. Motorway will be 28 meters wide which will be 2 circular strips of 3.75 meters with an emergency lane of 2.5 meters and the green belt in median width between 3-4 meters.
The project includes the construction of 22 bridges, 61 underpass/overpasses and 9 interchanges. Apart from creating modern infrastructure and accelerating economic development of country, the new highway will give landlocked Kosovo easy access to international markets, facilitating the movement of people and goods.
Moreover this motorway will connect Kosovo to Albania in the fastest possible way increasing tourism between the two Albanian-speaking countries.