The Overall Construction of Maritsa Motorway with Funds of Operational Program Transport Is Completed

Lot 1 Orizovo – Dimitrovgrad of Maritsa motorway is opened for traffic as of today. The overall construction of the motorway was completed– from its connection with Trakia motorway to the border control checkpoint Kapitan Andreevo at the Bulgarian-Turkish border, with the building of the 31,4-kilometer section.

The „Construction of Maritsa Motorway Lot 1 and Lot 2” Project is cо-financed by the Cohesion Fund of the European Union and the national budget under Operational Program Transport 2007-2013.

A total of 65,62 km were built up with funds from the Operational Program. The traffic along Lot 2 – from Dimitrovgrad to Harmanli with length of 34,22 km, was commissioned on 28 May of the present year. Maritsa is the third fully completed motorway with financial resource from the EU after Trakia and Lyulin.

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

The section from Orizovo to Dimitrovgrad is on the territory of the regions of Plovdiv, Stara Zagora and Haskovo and passes through the municipalities of Bratya Daskalovi, Parvomay, Chirpan and Dimitrovgrad. It starts up to the south of the town of Chirpan, crosses the Maritsa River within the area of the village of Yabalkovo and ends at km 36+400 at about 5 km to the south-west of the town of Dimitrovgrad.

On the site were built up 22 major structures. The following are amongst them: a bridge over the Maritsa River – with length of 470 m, a bridge over the Stara Reka River /156 m/, a bridge over the Banska River /131 m/, a bridge over Dobri Dol Dam Lake /56 m/, 6 agricultural overpasses, 8 agricultural subways, 4 overpasses of road and railway communications, 4 parking lots and so on. 288 beams of pre-stressed reinforced concrete and over 10 000 cub. m of concrete were used at the construction of the biggest structure – the bridge over the Maritsa River in the proximity of the village of Velikan.

COOPERATIVE SOCIETY Cooperativa Muratori & Cementisti, C.M.C di Ravenna is the contractor of Lot 1 Orizovo – Dimitrovgrad from km 5+000 to km 36+400. The value of the contract is BGN 159 755 613 inclusive of VAT. The construction supervision was exercised by Т7/SNIK company under the Obligations and Contracts Act. Their contract is for BGN 678 600, inclusive of VAT. The author’s supervision was exercised by Patproject LTD.

The roadability of the alignment connecting Sofia and the border with the Republic of Turkey is increased with the completion of the last section of Maritsa motorway. The traffic along the first-class and second-class roads in the regions of Plovdiv, Stara Zagora and Haskovo, which the heavy-weight and the tourist traffic from and to our southern neighboring country passed on so far, will be made easier. The transit traffic will be taken out of the populated areas in the immediate proximity of road I-8. This will result in the reduction of the time for movement and preservation of the environment through overall reduction of the harmful emissions, the pollution of the air and the level of noise. Horizontal marking with light reflecting pearls was placed along the entire section and restrictive systems satisfying all the European requirements were installed in order to increase traffic safety.

With the commissioning of Lot 1 Orizovo – Dimitrovgrad it is expected that the annual average daily traffic will be 8 500 motor vehicles in 2015, 11 145 motor vehicles in 2020 and 15 701 motor vehicles in 2040.

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