Tirana Times
TIRANA, Jan. 17 – Some 26 Albanian and foreign companies have submitted bids to build a tunnel linking capital Tirana to neighboring central Albanian city of Elbasan in the shortest possible way. Sources from the General Directorate of Roads, which is the contracting authority, said well known companies such as the Bechtel-Enka consortium which built the Rreshen-Kalimash tunnel linking Albania to Kosovo, and several other Italian, Greek, German companies participated in the initial phase of the tender.
According to Public Procurement Agency, the price tag for the tunnel construction is 150 million euros VAT excluded and 180 million dollars VAT included.
The majority of funds to build the country’s second biggest tunnel will be made available by state budget.
The tunnel is expected to be completed within 18 months once the contract has been signed and possibly open to traffic within 2012, one year before the mandate of the ruling coalition expires in order to avoid electoral campaign claims, said Prime Minister Sali Berisha in a meeting with his Democratic Party lawmakers last year.
The Tirana-Elbasan highway will be the first segment of 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.
Designed to follow the shortest possible trajectory, the new highway will have a maximum speed of 110 km/h, taking passengers only 15 to 20 minutes to arrive in Elbasan. 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.
