Gateway to Europe and Asia: Greece Takes First Steps Towards New Evros Bridge Project with Turkey

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport has announced its intention to fund the new bridge that will connect Greece and Turkey at the Evros border. According to the relevant decision, the required public expenditure amounts to €67.5 million.

This concerns the section of the bridge that will be constructed by the Greek side. The full title of the project is: Construction of a 2nd Cross-Border Bridge at the “Kipoi – Ipsala” Border Crossing.

The project on the Greek side will be carried out by Egnatia Odos S.A., which also undertook the relevant studies — in cooperation with the Turkish General Directorate of Highways (KGM) — for the Turkish section.

The new bridge will be a three-span cable-stayed structure, with a total length of 811 meters, of which 344 meters lie within Greek territory. It will feature two traffic lanes in each direction, an emergency lane, and pedestrian sidewalks on each side.

It will be built a few dozen meters away from the existing Kipoi bridge.

Its official name is the “Kipoi–Ipsala Bridge of Friendship and Trust.” It is worth noting that the Greek side will be responsible for 150 meters of the bridge, while the Turkish side will cover 291 meters. On the Turkish side, the supervisory authority is the Turkish General Directorate of Highways (KGM).

This is a particularly important project, as it functionally serves the interconnection between Greece and Turkey via the Pan-European Corridor IV (Berlin–Sofia–Thessaloniki), as well as Turkey’s operational linkage to Pan-European Corridor X and the Balkan countries through the Egnatia Odos, generating direct economic benefits for Greece.

The construction of the main central cable-stayed bridge will be carried out through two separate tenders — one by the Greek side and one by the Turkish side — for the respective sections of the bridge within each country’s territory. Accordingly, two different contractors will be assigned, one for each side.

It is worth noting that the existing bridge connecting the two countries was inaugurated in June 1954 and entered into operation in 1964.

For more details and the complete article in Greek, click here