Tirane-Elbasan tunnel to open to traffic in early 2013

TIRANA, August 9 – The Tirana-Elbasan highway tunnel is on track to become operational at the beginning of 2013, said Transport Minister Sokol Olldashi during an inspection visit last Tuesday.
The tunnel is being built by Greece’s Aktor which last May officially started works to build a double-bore 2.3 km tunnel as part of a new highway linking Tirana to Elbasan.
Currently, the company has finished all access roads leading to the double bore tunnel and has dug out 45 metres of tunnel in the Elbasan portal. The first meters are also being dug out in the Tirana Portal.
“We are completely on track with the calendar of works, and with the agenda the company has based on the contract, the tunnel will probably be operational at the beginning of 2013, giving a solution to one of the key problems for the transport systems in the country,” Olldashi told reporters.
Aktor, which is one of the largest construction companies in Greece and a member of Ellaktor Group, 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 highway, which is expected to cut the distance to Elbasan from the current 48 kilometres to only 31 kilometres, will have four lanes and two tunnels, 2.3 and 2.1 km long each–saving passengers to Elbasan 40 minutes in travel time. It is considered the biggest infrastructural project of the government’s four-year term, after the Durres-Kukes-Morine highway linking Albania to Kosovo, which was fully completed last October after the opening of the second Thirre tunnel. Earlier this year, the Islamic Development Bank granted a $222.7 million (156 million Euros) loan for the highway construction whose cost is estimated at USD 400 million. The Saudi Fund for Development also approved a USD 25 million soft loan while the OPEC Fund for International Development has awarded USD 20.4 million.