August 29 (SeeNews) - The construction of a 23.6 km motorway stretch connecting the towns of Kresna and Sandanski in southern Bulgaria will be launched officially on Tuesday, a few days earlier than previously announced, the country's regional development ministry said on Monday.
The contractor - local tie-up Struma-Lot 3.3 - was selected in September last year to build the section for the amount of 281 million levs ($161.9 million/143.7 million euro), the regional development ministry said in a statement.
The consortium Struma-Lot 3.3 comprises GBS Infrastrukturno Stroitelstvo, Patstroy-92, Glavbolgarstroy, and Geostroy.
Local Patinvest - Engineering was selected to supervise the construction of the motorway stretch for the amount of 3.6 million levs.
The motorway section should be completed by end-2019, the ministry said two weeks ago.
The Struma motorway, with a total length of 173.28 km, is part of pan-European transport Corridor IV, linking Bulgaria's capital Sofia with the Greek border at checkpoint Kulata. Its construction is divided into four sections, of which three are completed: Dolna Dikanya – Dupnitsa, Dupnitsa – Blagoevgrad, and Sandanski-Kulata, while Blagoevgrad-Sandanski, dubbed lot 3, remains to be built.
Earlier in August, Bulgaria's road agency said it received 17 bids for the construction of a 2 km Zheleznitsa tunnel and another 2.5 km of adjacent roads, also part of the lot 3 of Struma motorway, which has an indicative value of 250 million levs.
(1 euro=1.95583 levs)