Bulgaria opens 110 mln euro Zheleznitsa road tunnel for traffic

The project, spanning a 5-kilometre motorway section, also included the construction of a service road, helicopter pad, two bridges and a retaining wall, the RIA said in a press release last week.

The Zheleznitsa tunnel, Bulgaria's longest road tunnel, was built by a tie-up between local companies GP Group, Global Construction and Via Plan under a 215.4 million levs ($118.7 million/110.1 million euro) contract. The companies began construction in 2019.

The sections on each side of the facility were completed under two separate contracts of some 57 million levs in total.

The project is co-financed by the EU's Cohesion Fund and the Transport Infrastructure 2014-2020 operational programme.

The Struma motorway will link Bulgaria's capital Sofia to the Kulata border checkpoint with Greece and is part of the Orient/East–Med Corridor, connecting Europe and Asia.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)