Skip to main content

Bosnia cancels a tender for Corridor 5C, part of European route E73

Bosnia is cancelling a tender for part of its Corridor 5C project, an integral part of the class-A north-south central European route E73. Route E73 runs around 700km from Hungary south through eastern Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Adriatic Sea in the area of Ploče port. The longest part of this corridor goes through Bosnia and Herzegovina – nearly 340km. Director of the Bosnian motorways company Autoput FBiH, Adnan Terzic, confirmed the cancelled tender to the Bosnian daily newspaper Dnev
March 13, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
Bosnia is cancelling a tender for part of its Corridor 5C project, an integral part of the class-A north-south central European route E73.

Route E73 runs around 700km from Hungary south through eastern Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Adriatic Sea in the area of Ploče port. The longest part of this corridor goes through Bosnia and Herzegovina – nearly 340km.

Director of the Bosnian motorways company Autoput FBiH, Adnan Terzic, confirmed the cancelled tender to the Bosnian daily newspaper Dnevni Avaz. Work will be retendered for parts of the Pocitelj node-Pocitelj bridge and Pocitelj-Zvirovici section.

Terzic said that the tender from 2014 failed several reviews, including one from the European Investment Bank (EIB) which is financing the project. A new tender will be set up likely to be worth around €103 million but he gave no dates.

E73 consists mostly of two-lane roads with at-grade intersections, although in 2000s, around a third of the route was upgraded to motorway standard. The remainder of the route is being upgraded.

Early last year, Autoput FbiH announced that 120km of the 340km is complete and around anouther 100km would likely be completed by 2020.

In mid-2014, a 6km stretch of the highway between Sarajevo and Zenica was opened that included a 3km-loong tunnel. The March 1 tunnel, named after date of Bosnia's independence referendum, meant that the journey between the two cities was cut from one hour to 30 minutes.

The tunnel cost around €62 million had been under construction for several years, first by two Slovenian companies that eventually which went bankrupt, and later by a consortium of Bosnian companies, according to a report by Balkan Insight at the time. The tunnel is the longest in Bosnia and is one of the most important infrastructure projects to be completed since the 1992-5 war.

Related Content

  • Poland's ambitious highway construction plans
    July 10, 2012
    The European football championships are among a number of things pushing Poland's ambitious highway building programme. Patrick Smith reports. Poland is planning to spend a colossal €4.57 billion on road projects in 2009, a 35% increase over the previous year. T
  • Romania to start work on the Sibiu-Pitesti A1 section in 2017
    April 17, 2015
    Work will start on the 120km Sibiu-Pitesti section of Romania’s A1 Freeway in 2017, Romanian media report. Around €1.6 billion will be spent on the route that will run through 20km of mountains. In February, the National Highway and Roads Company, CNADNR, selected the Milan-based Spea Ingineria Europea and Tecnic Consulting Engineering of Romania to update the feasibility study on the section, which is part of Romania’s A1 Freeway. But that contract has been challenged and will be scrutinised by th
  • Algeria upgrading route to key highway status
    June 5, 2015
    Algeria is upgrading National Road One (RN01) so that it will become the North-South motorway. The project involves widening and improving the route as well as adding more lanes. The work forms part of the 2010-2014 five-year plan and involves seven local and national companies. It involves doubling the number of lanes for the 103km stretch between the Laghouat and Ghardaïa regions. The work is costing US$116 million. Work on the first 51km section will be completed at the end of August 2015, while the seco
  • New road tunnel planned for Bosnia Herzogovina
    August 21, 2013
    Bidding is strong for a road tunnel project in Bosnia Herzogovina. The expected cost of the 902m long tunnel has not so far been revealed, however the project is being financed jointly by the European Investment Bank (EIB) as well as Bosnia’s Federal Government. The tender for the project was announced by Bosnian roads company, Cesta Federacije BiH. Bids have been received from Croatian contractors Skladgradnja, Viadukt and Hidroelektra Niskogradnja.