December 29 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA) said it launched a 6.7 million levs ($3.8 million/3.4 million euro) tender for the development of a conceptual design for an expressway connecting the northwestern city of Montana and the capital Sofia via a tunnel under the Petrohan pass.
The project envisages an extended concept, comprehensive engineering and geological studies and a detailed layout for an 82-kilometre expressway with a 120 kilometres per hour design speed, the government agency said in a press release on Thursday.
The selected contractor must design a route linking Montana's bypass to the Sofia Ring Road, avoiding protected areas and territories and complying with environmental regulations. The new route will align with separate projects for the construction of the expressway between Montana and Vratsa, as well as the Europe motorway.
The Montana-Sofia expressway is key to both the national and European transport networks, yet a final design has not been approved after years of consideration, the RIA said. Economic feasibility studies were conducted in the late 1980s to assess the viability of enhancing the route between Sofia and Montana.
A pre-investment study was prepared for the Montana-Sofia route with a tunnel under Petrohan in 2020, with three solutions proposed for improving the route. However, due to the impact of the proposed routes on protected areas, the procedures were cancelled in order to explore a better design solution.
Potential bidders can submit their offers until February 15. The project has a one-year term.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)