The Construction of the Dupnitsa – Blagoevgrad Section of Struma Motorway under Operational Program Transport Is Completed

Over 37 km of Struma motorway in the section Dupnitsa – Blagoevgrad are open for traffic. The project is cо-financed by the Cohesion Fund of the European Union and the national budget under Operational Program Transport 2007-2013. Road Infrastructure Agency completed the construction of a total of 69 km of Struma motorway in the sections Dolna Dikanya – Dupnitsa /16,78 km/, Dupnitsa – Blagoevgrad /37,48 km/ and Sandanski – Kulata /14,7 km/ with funds from the Operational Program.

President Rosen Plevneliev, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, the Ministers of Regional Development and Public Works Lilyana Pavlova and of the Transport, Information Technology and Communications Ivaylo Moskovski and the Chairman of the Management Board of Road Infrastructure Agency, eng. Lazar Lazarov opened the new motorway section.

Lot 2 is the longest and the most complex section of those built up of Struma motorway up to now. It includes 42 big-sized facilities – 7 viaducts, 15 bridges, 6 overpasses and 14 underpasses. This is the first road project on engineering, which includes design and construction. The Contractor of Lot 2 Dupnitsa – Blagoevgrad from km 322+000 to km 359+483.52 is CONSORTIUM “STRUMA-LOT 2”, which consists of: Impresa JSC, Italy, GBS Infrastructure Construction AD (JSC), Bulgaria and Patstroy – 92 AD, Bulgaria. The value of the Contract is BGN 358 722 000 inclusive of VAT. The construction supervision was exercised by DZZD (Company under the Obligations and Contracts Act) ASSOCIATION STRUMA-PP, which consists of: Patinvestengineering AD and Patproekt EOOD (LTD) – city of Sofia. Their Contract is for BGN 2 949 843 inclusive of VAT.

The section is on the territory of the regions of Kyustendil and Blagoevgrad and the connection with the national road network within the region will be made through 4 road junctions:

• Road junction Dupnitsa-South, which provides the connection with road II-62 Kyustendil – Dupnitsa and the access of the residents of the municipalities of Dupnitsa, Kyustendil and Bobov Dol to the motorway;
• Road junction Boboshevo – connection with road III-104 Boboshevo – Chetirtsi;
• Road junction Kocherinovo – with road I-1 Dupnitsa – Blagoevgrad. It provides the direct connection with road III-107 for the Rila Monastery and is a connection for the residents of the municipalities of Kocherinovo and Rila to the route of Struma motorway;
• Road junction Blagoevgrad – connection with road III-106 Blagoevgrad – Border control checkpoint Stanke Lisichkovo and of the residents from the municipality of Blagoevgrad with the motorway.  

Two tunnels with two pipes each were also built up. They are at the residential district of Levski of the town of Kocherinovo and at the village of Blatino. Another big-sized facility is the bridge over the Struma River which is 950 m.  

At the construction of Lot 2 Road Infrastructure Agency undertook measures for the preservation of the discovered by the archeologists unique for Europe Neolithic settlement beside the village of Mursalevo. The find is from the early Neolithic era and is 8000 years old. The preservation and the exposure of 3 270 sq. m. of the area of the ancient settlement getting within the servitude of the motorway is guaranteed by the construction of a special retaining wall. The investment in the retaining wall is nearly BGN 7 million. The state provided over BGN 4.2 million for the investigation of the registered archeological sites during the construction works.  

The total length of Struma Motorway – from Daskalovo to the border with Greece is 150 km. It is a part of corridor “Orient/Eastern Mediterranean”, connecting Vidin with Kulata and the road traffic for Greece passes along it. The direction is used as the shortest route between Western, Central Europe and the Aegean Sea and also as a connection of Europe with Asia.

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