Bulgaria Weighs Two Alternative Routes For Hemus Motorway Section
Bulgaria will choose between two alternative routes for the construction of a section of Hemus motorway, the regional development ministry said on Monday. Initially, the country looked into four alternative routes for the project, the ministry said in a press release on Monday. The ministry sees the so-called "blue" route, which passes between Pleven and Lovech, as more advantageous over the other one, known as the "green" route, which runs along the existing I-4 road, it added. The blue route will be 252 kilometers long and is estimated at 767 million euro, net of value-added tax (VAT). It will serve a maximum number of towns and cities and will have a shorter travel time, according to the press release. The route passes 15 kilometers from Pleven’s downtown and has gone through technical, financial, socio-economical and ecological analyses. Some 3.0 million people in northern Bulgaria will benefit from using the route. The projected traffic for 2020 is of around an average 18,000 per day. Hemus motorway is to be connecting the capital Sofia withe Varna on the Black Sea coast. Its estimated length is approximately 420 km.