Despite earlier contractor issues, road projects in Bosnia are proceeding on track

Key road construction projects are now moving forward in Bosnia with work on-track for the Sarajevo ringroad as well as the Corridor Vc highway.

Construction of a 130km section of the Corridor Vc highway should be complete by 2014 according to Bosnia's Ministry of Transport and Telecoms. Work on the first section of the Sarajevo ringroad should be completed within five months, following the signing of an agreement worth €17 million between the Austrian firm 945 Strabag and the Bosnian company 5576 HP Investing.

The second stretch of the Sarajevo ringroad should be complete by 2013 and work is expected to be completed within the deadlines. This is in spite of the fact that work had halted when the previous contractor SCT was liquidated. This new tender was called in agreement with the project lenders, the EBRD, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the OPEC FOISD. Work should begin on 28 May 2012 and will be carried out in three parts. Three local companies, 5577 Asfaltgradnja, 5579 Hidrogradnja and 5580 Sarajevo Putevi, will be among the firms carrying out portions of the construction work.

Construction work is now going ahead on the Suhodol-Tarcin section of Bosnia’s Corridor Vc highway. The Bosnian Government and highway company 5740 Autoceste FBiH Mostar signed a contract with Turkish company 4144 Cengiz Insaat Sanayi ve Ticaret for this section of the Corridor Vc highway. The deal is worth €115.2 million and will be for construction of a total of 5km of the motorway. The work is expected to take 28 months to complete. However a consortium of five construction companies from Bosnia and Herzegovina is said to have lost the deal for the construction of this section of the Corridor Vc highway because it failed to meet deadlines for the Kakanj-Biljesevo stretch. Led by Croatia's construction company 5438 Viadukt, the consortium offered to carry out the work for €113 million.

In addition to Viadukt this consortium comprises GP Put, 5741 Euroasfalt, Hering, 5742 ZGP and Hidrogradnja. Work is now commencing on the Corridor Vc highway, which is located in the northern part of Bosnia, and is due for completion by the middle of 2014.

Bosnia's Ministry of Transport and Telecoms has said however that the documentation relating to the construction of the bridge over the Sava River will be submitted to the authorities in Zagreb, Croatia. This is because the project will be managed by Croatia. The bridge will cost €22 million to construct with the cost being shared equally between the authorities in Bosnia and Croatia.