Austria Porr Starts Construction of 118 Mln Euro Bridge in Serbia’s Belgrade – Media

“After more than 30 years we start building a new bridge in Belgrade, a bridge which will be used by the underground railroad operator, once we make it,” the city mayor, Dragan Djilas, was quoted by Emportal as saying at the ground-breaking ceremony on Monday.

The bridge should be completed in 40 months. It will be 929 metres long and will have six lanes, twin light rail tracks and two pedestrian lanes.

In March, Serbia picked the Porr-led consortium to build the bridge. Slovenian construction company SCT and Germany's DSD Bruckenbau GmbH are the other partners in the consortium.

Belgrade has three functioning road bridges over the Sava river connecting the old and the new districts of the city. This makes some areas difficult to access and has resulted in increased traffic jams, noise and air pollution, which are among the most pressing problems of the city of some 1.6 million people.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) had lent 70 million euro to Belgrade for the construction of the bridge, Bajic said. The city will contribute the remainder.

The project is designed to expand the Serbian market of infrastructure services, including local transport. It would increase river crossing capacity and relieve traffic congestion and traffic-related air pollution.

Belgrade lies at the confluence of the rivers Sava and Danube. Besides the three road bridges over the Sava river Belgrade has one road bridge over the Danube.

($=0.7928 euro)