Road Agency Signs Contract For Construction Of Trakiya Motorway

The Road Infrastructure Agency is due to sign the contract with Magistrali Trace on April 23 for the construction of the motorway section spanning from Stara Zagora to Nova Zagora, Dnevnik daily said.

Magistrali Trace, consisting of Trace, PSI, CK 13 Holding, Viastroi Engineering and Putno Stroitelstvo, won the tender after it tabled the lowest bidding price at 137.868 million leva for the 32km stretch of motorway.

The price offered by Magistrali Trace was about a 100 million leva less than the second bidder, meaning that each km of the motorway will cost about 2.2 million euro. By comparison, Trace constructed the motorway section from Orizovo until Stara Zagora in 2007 for 2.4 million euro a km.

Reportedly, the new section of the motorway pending construction will generate 4000 jobs, with the first sod scheduled for May 3. The project must be completed by the summer of 2012.

According to the report, Trace was selected primarily because of its "full mobilisation", "intimate knowledge of the local region", "its logistical bases and resources in proximity", "the minimum risk involved" and, of course, the lowest price tabled.

The motorway will be financed under the Transport operative programme from the European Commission's cohesion fund.