Rruga e Arbri/ Half of the concession period ends, works still continue

2024-06-18 12:20:00, Aktualitet CNA

Rruga e Arbri/ Half of the concession period ends, works still continue

Arbri Street, photo taken from Google

The implementation of the concession contract for the construction of Arbri Street entered its sixth year in 2024, consuming almost half of the term of the 13-year government contract.

According to data from the Ministry of Finance, the company "Gjoka Konstruksion" that won the concession for the construction of this facility received almost half of the funding of over 15 billion ALL, while the works for the construction of the Murrizi tunnel, the most difficult part of the segment, still follow.

According to the reports and confirmation of the Contracting Authority for the Ministry of Finance, 54 km of roads have been completed by 2023, in the stage of advanced works, where the entire package of asphalt layers (conglomerate, binder and asphalt concrete) has been completed in about 19 km and the rest is in the binder layer phase.

The works with all the elements foreseen in the project for road segments no. 1, no. 6, Klos and the road segment Maqellare - Bllatë, the 5 new tunnels have been completed, with all elements (including lighting).

The construction of 2 reinforced concrete bridges has been completed, namely over the Zallit River of Bulqiza (144 meters long) and over the Drin River (260 meters long), the Ura e Vaša and the Ura e Fshati Fshat as well as the By Pass have been completed of Murriz, with a length of 9.6 km.

Works have also been completed up to the Conglomerate layer, in the road segment before the entrance to the Murriz tunnel, where the piles, protection works with a reinforced wall have been completed.

The Ministry of Finance announced that work is currently being done on the construction of the Murriz tunnel, where the excavations have been carried out to the extent of 100%, where despite the difficulties due to the geological formation, where the works were suspended for 17 months in this work, work is currently being done on several work fronts in both pipes, the main one and the emergency one, with the stages of concreting the foundations/final coating, drainage, waterproofing as well as with re-profiling (reinforcement of the tunnel), in the areas where it is necessary, etc.

In terms of the type of financing, this concessionary/PPP project is budget-supported, the payments of which started in 2019.

The actual payments of 2023 are in the amount of 2.84 billion ALL and in total the budget payments to the concessionaire have been paid 15.7 billion ALL or about 150 million euros, out of about 33.8 billion ALL which is the total value of the contract.

Arbri Street has gone through a complicated history of costs and procedures, from the initial plans for its construction with 70 million euros, to today where the bill is expected to reach over 350 million euros.

The government took over the road in November 2021, although the works had not been completed in a large part of the segments. The duration of the execution of the contract is 13 years, while the works started in 2019. This year marks 6 years since the entry into force of the contract. According to the stipulations in the contract, the road should have been fully delivered in 2022 at the latest./ Monitor