Work starts on Tirana’s new Northern Boulevard

TIRANA, Sept. 12 – Tirana Mayor Lulzim Basha has led a ceremony marking the official start of construction the capital’s new Northern Boulevard, the first project of its kind near downtown Tirana for decades.
An ambitious plan, the Northern Boulevard will extend the city’s main North-South axis opening a new corridor for commerce, experts say.
Mayor Basha, who was recently elected as head of the main opposition Democratic Party, made the project a priority during his election campaign as the capital’s chief executive.
The project will include new private and public buildings as well as recreation areas.
Start of construction also marked the end of the old train station, which will be moved to the city’s outskirts. In the meantime all trains to Tirana will end their journey in the town of Vora, 25 kilometers, west of Tirana, and train passengers will be transported free of extra charges by bus. A new tram service is also planned as part of the project.
In its last days the former government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha passed a decision on the expropriation for the owners and possessors of real estate, personal property, affected by the implementation of the project Northern Boulevard and rehabilitation of the Tirana River.
But there has been some controversy at the value the state has set for the expropriation and some residents protested during the opening ceremony. Basha said their concerns would be addressed.
The mayor said believes that the implementation of this project is vital for the further development of the capital’s infrastructure and direct impact on enhancing the welfare and rapid economic development.
It has always been an anomaly in the geography of Tirana’s city core: The street grid spans widely from east to west, but it is squeezed in the north-south direction by old railway infrastructure and hills.
City Hall plans to end that, giving breathing room for commercial development in a northern extension of Zog I Boulevard. The same project aims to make the banks of Tirana River into a park and a green belt accessible to the public, ending the river’s reputation as a no-go zone.
“This project will completely revitalize a fifth of the city of Tirana, will build a new economic pole, which will open up thousands more jobs, improve traffic, and would open access to previously inaccessible areas of thecapital for children and the elderly,” Basha said at a recent presentation about the event.
The project itself consists of extending the boulevard by 1.7 kilometers to meet Tirana River near the suburb of Paskuqan.The plan involves new commercial development north of the city’s current core, with multiple parks, places of entertainment, low-rise buildings and modern public transport.
Construction of the new massive Palace of Justice is also part of the project.The projects also all have green and natural spaces, using the presence of water and hills to create green areas and a second large park in the city’s northern end to mirror the one in the south.
The Deshmoret e Kombit-Zog I boulevard expansion will be in a straight light with current infrastructure.