Maritsa motorway

The Maritsa motorway (Bulgarian: Автомагистрала Марица) is part of Pan-European corridor number 10, which connects Central Europe with Asia. The highway is part of the trans-European corridor from Dresden, Germany to Istanbul and part of the trans-European highway connecting Central and Eastern Europe with the Middle East and Asia. The project links the town of Parvomay and Kapitan Andreevo at the Turkish border. Its projected length is 114 kilometres (71 mi) of which 37 km are built; the planned opening date is May 2011. The Maritsa motorway designated A3, which will branch off from east of Plovdiv just west of Chirpan at the Orizovo Interchange and 5 km north of Parvomay, at the Orizovo Interchange it will run south east to the Turkish border. The EU agreed funding for the completion of this project in November 2007.^[1] Its construction runs in the same direction as an existing length of the route 8 road. The route 8 road that runs near the city of Parvomay is mainly only a two-lane road and carries much of the road freight to and from Turkey. The completion of the A3 Maritsa Motorway will attempt to reduce this congestion.

The current Bulgarian GERB government (2010) has promised the completion of the Trakia, Maritsa, and Lyulin Highways by the end of its term in 2013, and tangible progress on the Struma and Black Sea Highways. In October 2010, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov officially opened a 31 km section of the Maritsa Highway between the towns of Harmanli and Lyubimets.

The new road junction near Novo Selo, providing direct connection with the highway to Greece, also opened in October 2010. During construction, 6000-year-old Neolithic remains were found near Haskovo.^[2]

There are 67 km (42 mi) still being built. The Maritsa Highway runs between the village of Orizovo, near Bulgaria's second largest city of Plovdiv and the "Capitan Andreevo" cross-border point with Turkey. The highway will connect to the Trakiya Highway near Orizovo.^[3]

References

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