July 6 (SeeNews) - Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina completed the construction of the 172 million kuna ($26 million/23 million euro) Svilaj cross-border bridge on the Sava river as part of a project financed 50/50 by the two neighbouring countries, state motorways operator Hrvatske Autoceste said.
The bridge has passed technical inspection and is now pending the issuance of an operational permit, Hrvatske Autoceste said in a statement on Friday.
It will be commissioned for traffic once construction works on the adjacent road section in Bosnia are completed.
The Svilaj bridge, part of European transport Corridor Vc, is situated on the 10.7-kilometre Svilaj – Odzak motorway section. It is 640 metres long and 29 metres wide, with three lanes in each direction.
Its construction, which began in September 2016, was carried out by Bosnian company Hering, Hrvatske Autoceste recalled.
It added that with the commissioning of the Svilaj bridge, a significant part of the cross-border traffic at the neighbouring Slavonski Brod - Brod border crossing will be redirected, resulting in a considerable traffic relief for the towns of Slavonski Brod in Croatia and Brod in Bosnia.
Corridor Vc connects Croatia's Adriatic port of Ploce with Budapest in Hungary via Bosnia.
($ = 7.5557 euro)