The highway, expected to cut the distance to Elbasan to 31 kilometres, down from 48 currently, will have four lanes and two tunnels, 2.3 and 2.1 km long each, saving passengers to the central Albanian city of Elbasan 40 minutes
TIRANA, May 2 – Greece’s Aktor has officially started works to build a 2.3 km tunnel part of a new highway linking capital Tirana to the neighbouring city of Elbasan in the shortest possible way. Attending the inauguration ceremony last weekend, Prime Minister Sali Berisha symbolically made the first remote-controlled detonation in the tunnel passing through a mountainous route expected to finish in 18 months. Addressing participants, Berisha said the Tirana-Elbasan highway was the second most important infrastructural project in the country being the key segment to southern Albania and the most important hub to the Corridor VIII project.
“The highway more than halves the distance with other regions especially Korca and creates the biggest market in Albania and among the biggest in the region with Tirana, Elbasan and Durres turning into an empowered common market,” said Berisha.
The highway’s inauguration came one week before Albania heads to local election on May 8, 2011. It is also expected to finish in spring 2013 just before Albania holds the next general elections.
Aktor, which is one of the largest construction companies in Greece, a member of Ellaktor Group, recently won the international tender after offering 83 million dollars to build the 2.3 km long tunnel, outbidding seven other international companies who submitted bids varying from 54 percent to 81 percent of the initial 150 million dollar price tag set by the Albanian government.
The Bechtel-Enka consortium which last year successfully completed the Rreshen-Kalimash highway including a giant tunnel linking Albania to Kosovo, three Greek companies, and three other companies from Italy, Croatia and Slovenia also participated in the race.
The Tirana-Elbasan highway will be the first segment of the southern road axis and an important hub of the Corridor 8 project with Italy, Macedonia and Bulgaria. The highway, expected to cut the distance to Elbasan to 31 kilometres, down from 48 currently, will have four lanes and two tunnels, 2.3 and 2.1 km long each, saving passengers to the central Albanian city of Elbasan 40 minutes compared to the current mountainous road. It is considered the biggest infrastructural project government intends to build in this four-year term after the Durres-Kukes-Morine highway linking Albania to Kosovo, whose works were only fully completed last October after the opening of the second Thirre tunnel.
Albania is borrowing euro156 million ($223 million) from the Islamic Development Bank to fund part of the new road between Tirana and the Elbasan industrial area.
The 17-year loan, with an interest of around five percent, will fund the construction of the four-lane road, which includes tunnel through a mountain.
The total cost of the project is estimated at about $400 million (euro280 million).
