Bulgaria picks winners in 502 mln euro motorway construction tender

The government agency is seeking EU funding for the entire motorway's construction under the upcoming operational programme Transport Connectivity 2021-2027, it said in a press release on Tuesday.

The tender had attracted five bidders and is worth 982.7 million levs ($514.2 million/502.4 million euro) in total, according to an earlier statement.

The first winning consortium, Hemus-16320, is made up of Infra Expert, Avtomagistrali - Tcherno More, Patinzheneringstroy-T and Transconsult-22, and will be in charge of the technical design and construction of Lot 1, the Ruse-Byala section of the future motorway, RIA announced on Tuesday. The construction works on Lot 1 are worth an estimated 536.4 million levs.

For the works on Lot 2, the Byala bypass, the road agency picked the AM Ruse Tarnovo tie-up, which includes Evropeiski Patishta, Groma Hold, Vodno Stroitelstvo-Blagoevgrad, Avtomagistrali Hemus and Patproect 2000. Lot 2 is worth 446.3 million levs.

The planned motorway has a total length of 132.8 km, with the final section, or Lot 3, to connect Byala to Veliko Tarnovo.

In a separate notice on Tuesday, RIA said it launched a 24.6 million levs tender for the supervision of the construction of the 75.6 km of motorway. The tender is again divided in two lots, which correspond to those of the construction works. They are worth 13.4 million levs and 11.2 million levs, respectively.

The deadline for submission of bids is August 15.

The current project will involve the construction of 22 bridges and viaducts of 15 km length in total, five tunnels as well as road junctions, overpasses, underpasses and rest areas, RIA added.

The Ruse-Veliko Tarnovo motorway is seen as a priority project as it is a major road link between countries of northeastern Europe with Greece and Turkey via Romania and Bulgaria, connecting the Baltic and Mediterranean seas.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)