Struma motorway
| |
|---|---|
| Автомагистрала „Струма“ | |
 Struma motorway highlighted in red and yellow | |
| Route information | |
| Length: |
33 km (21 mi) 156 km (97 mi) planned 55 km (34 mi) under construction |
| Major junctions | |
| From: |
Pernik,  |
| To: |
Kulata,  |
| Location | |
| Major cities: | Pernik (future: Dupnitsa, Blagoevgrad, Sandanski, Petrich) |
| Highway system | |
| Motorways in Bulgaria | |
The Struma Motorway (Bulgarian: Автомагистрала „Струма“, Avtomagistrala "Struma") is a motorway currently under construction in Bulgaria. The motorway follows the route Pernik-Dupnitsa-Blagoevgrad-Sandanski-border to Greece. It is part of the Pan-European Corridor IV and also is part of E79, that runs from Miskolc (Hungary) to Thessaloniki (Greece), via the Romanian cities of Deva and Craiova.
The Struma motorway extends A6 Lyulin motorway, running from Sofia to Pernik. The total planned length of Struma motorway is 156 km. It ends at the border crossing to Greece, at the village of Kulata. Around 33 km of the motorway are already built and are in service, from the start in Pernik's junction to Dupnitsa-north interchange.
The remaining motorway is divided into 3 construction lots: lot 2 is Dupnitsa–Blagoevgrad, lot 3 is Blagoevgrad–Sandanski and lot 4 is Sandanski–Kulata. The construction of lot 1 started in September 2011 and is scheduled to be completed by August 2013, while the construction of lot 4 started in April 2012 and is due to be finalized by March 2014. A contract for the construction of lot 2 was signed in February 2013,[1] while due to the high value of the project the construction of lot 3 is set back to the 2014–2020 financial period and only a preliminary design will be done before that. Lot 3 shall be tendered and managed by a newly founded National Company "Strategic Infrastructure Projects".[2][3]
The motorway will provide two driving lanes in each direction and wide emergency lanes so that it meets European motorway standards. 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 four sections of the motorway are supposed to cost 1.2 billion € because of the difficult construction in the gorge.
The motorway is named after the Struma River.
Exits
| Exit | km | Destinations | Lanes | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
(0) | , Pernik E871 |
 |
In service |
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(7,4) | Studena | |
In service |
| |
(11,3) | Bosnek | |
In service |
| |
(15) | Staro selo | |
In service |
| |
(19) | Dolna Dikanya | |
In service |
| |
Dupnitsa-north | |
In service | |
| |
Dupnitsa-south, Kyustendil | |
U/C | |
| |
Boboshevo | |
U/C | |
| |
Blagoevgrad-north, Kocherinovo | |
U/C | |
| |
Blagoevgrad | |
U/C | |
 |
Zheleznitsa tunnel | Planned | ||
| |
Zheleznitsa | Planned | ||
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Simitli, Bansko | Planned | ||
| |
Krupnik | Planned | ||
| |
Kresna Gorge Tunnel | Planned | ||
| |
Kresna | Planned | ||
| |
Strumyani | Planned | ||
| |
Sandanski | Planned | ||
| |
Petrich, Melnik | |
U/C | |
| |
General Todorov | |
U/C | |
| |
Marikostinovo | |
U/C | |
| |
Kulata; Thessaloniki, Athens  |
|
U/C |
Gallery
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Struma motorway near Pernik
References
- ↑ "Construction begins on the section Dupnitsa-Blagoevgrad of Struma motorway" (in Bulgarian). api.government.bg.
- ↑ "Great interest in the tender for lot 3 of Struma motorway". infrastructure.bg. 29 January 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
- ↑ "Bulgaria to start building 65-km section of Struma motorway in summer 2015". wire.seenews.com.
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