Minister: Peljesac Bridge to be completed by 2022

Transport and Infrastructure Minister Oleg Butkovic said on Thursday that the construction of Peljesac Bridge should start this autumn and all works on the bridge and adjacent infrastructure should be completed in 2012 or in 2022.

Butkovic held a news conference after Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic informed his cabinet on Thursday morning that next week the European Commission would complete its internal procedures for the partial-financing of the project called "Road Connectivity of South Dalmatia", including the construction of a future Peljesac Bridge, and Croatia can count on 357 million euro from EU funds for that purpose. In mid-February the Plenkovic cabinet green-lighted the financing of the project including the construction of the Peljesac Bridge.

Butkovic described Peljesac Bridge and access roads as the most important infrastructure project in the transport sector.

The project is estimated at 420.3 million euro and Croatia can count on absorbing 357 million euro from EU funds.

The minister said that to date eight bidders for the construction of the bridge had been short-listed and that the best bidders would be selected in mid-July.

The bidding procedure is confidential and Butkovic declined to comment on who had sent their bids for this job.

The project will consist of three stages and the construction of the 2.4-kilometre long bridge will be built in the first stage. Furthermore, 12 kilometres of access roads are planned for the next stage and finally a ring-road around Ston is to be built.

Butkovic recalls that the project will also connect the Croatian mainland with the southernmost tip of Croatia.

The bridge connecting the peninsula of Peljesac with the rest of Croatia is to be built off Neum, a town on Bosnia's coastline stretch. Bosnia and Herzegovina insists on unobstructed access to the high seas and Butkovic said that everything had been hammered out with Sarajevo. The future bridge will consequently be 55 metres high.

Text: Hina

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