At the beginning of November, a section of the highway “Europe” between Dragoman and Slivnitsa will be ready, which is nearly half a year earlier than provided in the contract, the Road Infrastructure Agency announced.

The construction work on the 17-kilometer section has been completed at 95 percent. The expectations are that the newly built road section will be allowed to traffic at the beginning of the next month.

To facilitated the traffic at the Kalotina border checkpoint, two-way traffic between the 15th and 20th km and the 21st and 25th km has been launched gradually, the press release reminds. If the weather conditions allow, the section from the 25th to the 29th kilometer will be completed by mid-October.

The construction work for the modernization of the 17th km of the first-class road Dragoman-Slivnitsa / from km 15 + 500 to km 32 + 447.20 / started in May last year. There is a second road lane in the section, and the old one is reconstructed to the highway gauge.

The section has two lanes for the traffic in each direction, and a road lane for an emergency stop. The investment is for BGN 117.3 million and it is from the republican funding.

The contractor is GBS Infrastructure Construction AD, and according to the contract, the deadline for completion is April 2021.

The section has two new road junctions “Slivnitsa 1” and “Slivnitsa 2”, which have energy-efficient lighting, as well as 11 large facilities – 5 underpasses, five overpasses, and a bridge over the river Slivnishka at the 30th km.

Also, there are seven leisure zones, emergency stopping and 14 pcs. reinforced gabion walls.

The section is part of the main Trans-European Transport Network. The route is in the direction London – Budapest – Belgrade – Sofia – Plovdiv – Istanbul – Calcutta and is the shortest road connecting Western Europe with the Middle East.

The section Kalotina – Sofia provides a connection to the trans-European corridor “Orient / Eastern Mediterranean”