Kosovo's highway and bridge construction on target

In Kosovo, work is pushing ahead of schedule on the Route 7 highway to link capital Pristina with the Albanian border. Sections of the 120km highway have been opened, one year ahead of schedule. An official opening of several sections of the highway has been carried out by Kosovan leaders, including Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi, President Atifete Jahjaga, and members of Parliament, along with Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha and US representatives Eliot Engel (D- NY) and Gary Peters (D-MI) joined thousan
May 4, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The bridges for Kosovo's Route 7 Highway are being built along modular lines with standardised 40m pre-cast concrete beams being installed over the top of the piers
In Kosovo, work is pushing ahead of schedule on the Route 7 highway to link capital Pristina with the Albanian border.

Sections of the 120km highway have been opened, one year ahead of schedule. An official opening of several sections of the highway has been carried out by Kosovan leaders, including Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi, President Atifete Jahjaga, and members of Parliament, along with Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha and US representatives Eliot Engel (D- NY) and Gary Peters (D-MI) joined thousands of Kosovans to celebrate at an opening ceremony.

The project is being carried out by US/Turkish joint venture partners 4138 Bechtel and 5252 Enka, with construction having commenced in the second quarter of 2010. Funding for the project has come from the Kosovan Government itself and route optimisation work by Bechtel-Enka managed to avoid the need for boring twin tube tunnels to the south east of Pristina.

Instead the main Route 7 highway joins with the M9 dual carriageway to the south west of the city, which was built recently by a local contractor. This modified route reduced construction costs for the Route 7 project considerably, a major factor in Bechtel-Enka winning the contract.

The motorway is scheduled for completion in 2013. A full report on this project will be published in the Jan/Feb issue of World Highways.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Checking up on the Czech Republic's Via Salis
    May 20, 2022
    Construction of the Via Salis, the Czech Republic’s first public-private partnership for a road project, is on schedule, according to VINCI which is leading the construction and operating consortium.
    Read More
  • New design for Sydney’s WestConnex motorway project third stage
    November 14, 2016
    Sydney’s proposed WestConnex motorway will be wider than planned to accommodate four instead of three lanes in each direction, according to media reports. The changes are part of a revamp of the third and final stage of the ambitious project in the capital city of Australia’s eastern New South Wales state. Some exit and entry ramps will also be scrapped but the overall cost of just under US$5.3 billion for the third stage remains unchanged, reported the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. The projects
    Read More
  • Kenya highway project financing resolution
    May 17, 2018
    Construction work on Kenya’s vital Mombasa-Nairobi highway upgrade project is now going ahead as planned. A resolution has been achieved that will solve the funding issues that had threatened to delay the project. The project will cost nearly US$3 billion in all and is crucial for the country’s economic development as it will provide a new four lane highway connecting Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, with its largest port at Mombasa. But there were concerns that the funding method based on a series of loans that w
    Read More
  • Work begins on Stockholm’s new bypass
    August 22, 2016
    The first tunnels are being excavated for the huge bypass tunnel in Sweden’s capital Stockholm – Adrian Greeman writes. After years of preparation and design, blasting and rock moving for Sweden's largest infrastructure project began south of the city this year. It sets in train a decade-long project that will create a new half-ring dual three-lane motorway for the city, 20km long. With most of it deep underground, it will also be one of Europe's largest ever road tunnels. The scheme is aimed at transformin
    Read More

Highlighted Content