| Albania-Kosovo Highway Rruga e kombit |
|
|---|---|
| Route information | |
| Length: | 272 km (169 mi) |
| Major junctions | |
| From: | Albania |
| To: | Kosovo[a] |
| Location | |
| Major cities: | Tirana Durres Prizren Pristina |
Albania-Kosovo Highway (also Durres-Kukes Corridor in Albania, Vermice-Merdare Corridor and Ibrahim Rugova Highway in Kosovo[a], and Rruga e Kombit in general) is a 4-lane highway being built between Albania and Kosovo. The highway starts at the port city of Durres in Albania and is planned to end at Merdare border crossing between Kosovo and Serbia. The highway in Albania is marked as A1, in Kosovo as R7, and forms part of European route E851. Once the Kosovo part of the project is finalized and completed, the highway will link the Adriatic Sea port of Durres in Albania with the Pan-European corridor X.
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In principle, the highway begins at the Albanian port of Durrës, passes through Fushe Kruje, Milot, Rreshen, Reps, Thirra, Kalimash, Kukes and ends at the Morine border crossing in Albania where it meets with the Kosovo portion of the highway at the analogue Vermice border crossing. The corridor passes along the existing SH2, SH52, SH1, SH30, A1, SH30, and SH5 routes in Albania and provides a shortcut to the old SH5 route between Shkoder and Kukes part of European route E851. As of 2011, segments Vore-Mamurras, and Milot-Rreshen still remain to be expanded into 4 lanes in the near future.
The segment between Rreshen and Kalimash was inaugurated on 26 June 2009 and numbered A1. The project was completed by July 2010 while the remaining portions by 2011. This former segment together with Fushe Kruje-Milot are equipped with entry and exit ramps.
The highway is expected to reduce the travel time from the current six hours to two, with an estimated speed of 80–110 km/h. The highway is expected to boost tourism in Albania and deepen the cultural and economic exchanges between the two countries. As most tourists come through Kosovo or Macedonia, the laying of the highway will make it much easier to travel to the Durrës port and the Adriatic Sea.
The four lane highway project is the biggest road infrastructure work ever done in the history of Albania. Its initial cost was estimated at €600m but during the course of construction this has more than doubled. The project is being financed by the government of Albania and some foreign lending institutions. The total cost of the highway is estimated to be over €1bn ($1.4bn). amid allegations of corruption and a growing public debt.
The contract for the construction of road segment between Rreshen and Kalimash which constitutes one-third of the whole project was awarded to a joint venture between Bechtel, a US-based engineering company, and Enka, a Turkey-based construction company. The contract was awarded in September 2006 and a majority of the construction works were completed in June 2009. Contractors working in the remaining portions of the highway are local firms instead. The motorway in Kosovo is being constructed by Bechtel-Enka as well.
The most challenging portion was the segment between Rreshen and Kalimash, which is around 61 km long. It is divided into three sections - a 19 km stretch from Rreshen to Reps, 27 km from Reps to Thirra and 15 km between Thirra and Kolshi. A total of one tunnel and 27 bridges have been constructed through the steep and mountainous terrain. There are 17 bridges in the area from Reps to Thirra. The use of a hydro-powered electricity grid instead of diesel generators has helped in reducing the carbon footprint of the project. As a result, CO2 emissions have dropped by 613,000 lb (278,000 kg) each month. The above segment as opposed to the other ones is of a higher quality both for security and construction parameters.
Construction work on the remaining segments in Albania (Fushe Kruje-Milot, and Kalimash-Morine) finished in 2011. The bridges along the latter segment will be upgraded in the near future while uncontrolled entry and exit points are becoming a major safety issue along the above road axes.[1]
Rreshen - Kalimash segment's third section of road between Thirra and Kolshi included Mt. Runes at an elevation of 1,858m. Laying road on Mt. Runes proved to be a challenge for the engineers. It was decided that the best way of navigating through the mountain was to construct a tunnel through it. Another challenge was the transportation of construction equipment and material. As about 3,800 people worked on the project, there was the additional responsibility of feeding, clothing and housing them.
The highway passes through a 5.5 km-long double-bore tunnel. Construction works on the tunnel began in May 2007 and were completed with one tunnel tube inaugurated in June 2009. The south-bound tunnel is scheduled to be completed in July 2010. All four faces of the two tubes of the tunnel have been worked on simultaneously. During tunnel construction, the tunnelling team encountered five classes of rock.
A partial collapse occurred at a 50m section in the central-south bore of the tunnel in November 2009. No injuries or equipment damages were reported. The collapse occurred because of heavy overbreak (during excavation) at a geologically complex area inside the tunnel and has delayed the completion of the south-bound tunnel. Only the north-bound tunnel was opened as per schedule in June 2009. One year later the south-bound tunnel was opened as well.
Construction of the Kosovo portion of the highway started in April 2010 with the Vërmicë-Pristina segment, part of the larger Vermice-Merdare Corridor which ends at Merdare border crossing with Serbia in eastern Kosovo. It is 118 km long at a cost of 700 million euro/ $937 million. This highway will set the travel time from Pristina to Tirana to 3 hours.[2] The Kosovo portion is of higher security standards than the portion Rreshen-Kalimash in Albania. Once the remaining Pristina-Merdare section project will be finalized and completed the motorway will link Kosovo with the Pan-European corridor X.
Since the end of the Kosovo War of 1999, hundreds of thousands of Albanians have passed through the poor old mountain road to get to Albania's beaches.[3] Building a highway would "crystallize a year-round tourism industry and double the size of the Albanian market", while allowing both communities to rationalize agriculture.[3] Travel times are expected to be lowered to two and a half hours or less, down from seven.[3]
Once finalized, the project will link the Adriatic Sea with the Pan-European corridor X at the E80 near the town of Merdar between the contested Kosovo-Serbia border.
US Congressman Eliot Engel has compared Sali Berisha's vision to build this highway to that of Eisenhower to build highways across the United States.[4]
Notes:
| a. | ^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Serbia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo. The latter declared independence on 17 February 2008, while Serbia claims it as part of its own sovereign territory. Its independence is recognised by 86 UN member states. |
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