Struma motorway

The Struma Motorway (Bulgarian: Автомагистрала Струма) is a planned expressway that will lead from the Daskalovo junction 5 km away of Sofia to the Bulgarian border with Greece at the village of Kulata. Around 20 km of the expressway have already been built, with four more sections left.

Tenders for Struma Motorway (lots 1,2,4) will be held in 2011. The first section is Dolna Dikanya - Dupnitsa and the second section is Dupnitsa - Simitli. The fourth section is from Sandanski to Kulata at the Greek border. The Status of the third section Simitli - Sandanski is unknown as it passes through the Kresna gorge. The Kresna gorge is a protected area with rare animals such as snakes and turtles and the government is forced to protect them.

The expressway will provide two driving lanes in each direction and wide emergency lanes so that it meets European motoway standards. Since the motorway will pass the gorge in combination of viaducts and tunnels in order to be least environmentally destroying to the nature in the Kresna gorge. The whole expressway with all 4 sections is supposed to cost 1,2 billion € because of the difficult construction in the Kresna gorge.

The current section of the Struma motorway is 5 years old and is still of very good quality. The materials used for building the motorway were very good and proove stable during heavy winter conditions, which the Struma motorway has to endure each winter at the high altitude of about 1000 m and it's closeness to the Vitosha mountain. The tarmac remains without potholes or waves and provides a clean and save, yet enjoyable, smooth drive.

Since October 2011 the lot 1 of the Struma motorway is under construction. It connects the current end of the motorway to the town of Dupnica and has a lengh of about 20 kilometers. The motorway will stop 1 km before Dupnica at the west, where it will continue to Blagoevgrad in future.