Skip to main content

Financial setbacks beset Slovakia’s highway development

Slovakian highway company NDS says that construction of the 13km Turany-Hubova highway may not be started in 2012. The previous Transport Ministry plan was to call the tender for this stretch in summer 2012. However, the EC has not yet approved the construction of this highway, with questions surrounding the protected area in the Velka and Mala Fatra mountains. If Slovakia does not get this approval, the country might have to chose the second option, which includes the tunnel Korbelka. The EC's decision is
June 12, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Slovakian highway company NDS says that construction of the 13km Turany-Hubova highway may not be started in 2012.

The previous Transport Ministry plan was to call the tender for this stretch in summer 2012. However, the EC has not yet approved the construction of this highway, with questions surrounding the protected area in the Velka and Mala Fatra mountains. If Slovakia does not get this approval, the country might have to chose the second option, which includes the tunnel Korbelka. The EC's decision is expected to be made by late 2012 or early 2013. Meanwhile work on the Visnove tunnel project depends on a loan from the 1054 European Investment Bank (EIB), as Slovakia does not have the money required. Should the EIB approve a loan, construction of the section of the D1 highway with the Visnove tunnel could start in 2012. The Transport Ministry has said that funding from the EIB could be used as a bridging loan because the ministry's current plans are for using EU funds only in the 2014-2020 budgetary period.

The value of the project is €900 million. The sum provided by the EIB will depend on the Transport Ministry's updated highway construction strategy. And should the Turany-Hubova section of the D1 motorway is built as a public-private partnership, the EIB and the 1166 European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) may participate. This would require all problems with environment protection to be solved for funding to be approved. At this stage it not possible to say when the whole D1 highway will be completed but it could be in 2018-2019 or even later.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Kazakhstan announces infrastructure investment programme to 2020
    April 2, 2015
    Kazakhstan’s deputy minister for investments and development Zhenis Kasymbek has said that about US$20 billion will be invested in development of all types of transport infrastructure by 2020. The main funds will be allocated for the Caspian region, in particular for projects to improve connections to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. Apart from road infrastructure, money will be invested to construct the Beyneu-Zhezkazgan railway and development of the Altynkol-Khorgos railway section in the direction of
  • € 350 million EBRD loan for key Bosnia motorway project?
    September 19, 2012
    Bosnian motorways company Autoputevi RS claims that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has expressed readiness to approve a € 350 million loan for the construction of the 46.6km long part of the Corridor Vc motorway, from Doboj to Vukosavlje. The project is set to be carried out through what has been described as a public and private partnership model.
  • Futureproofing UK construction equipment resilience
    May 5, 2021
    Rob Oliver is the longstanding CEO of the Construction Equipment Association (CEA), the UK trade association for the UK construction equipment industry. Guy Woodford recently caught up with him to discuss the industry’s health and the key issues facing the CEA and its members in 2021 and beyond.
  • Highway developments to boost east-west transport
    April 4, 2012
    Huge highway developments are being planned and carried out to further improve East-West transport, with Central Asia a key region as Patrick Smith reports History was made in late 2010, when one of the biggest road building projects ever envisaged in Eastern Europe was given the green-light. It was the occasion when Russian president Dmitry Medvedev signed a law that would allow his country to build its segment of a huge highway around the Black Sea. The idea is to complete the 7,140km highway, wi