Athens-Thessaloniki Motorway to be completed after 45 years of construction works

It’s the final countdown for the release of the last section of the Motorway connecting Athens and Thessaloniki. The last bit, which is under completion has a length of 25 km and is between Evangelismos and Skotina. The, under construction, road was visited by the Minister of Infrastructure, Mr. Ch. Spirtzis on February 2 and Ypodomes.com was present as well.

This Motorway section is by far the most impressive, from a technical point of view, and definitely a reason for Aegean Motorway to brag about. The middle of the 3 tunnels that will replace the current, perilous passage of Tempi Valley, has an overall length of 6 km and is the longest road tunnel in Greece and in the Balkans.

We remind that we are just 55 days away from the completion of the project and its release to the public that will reduce time distance between Athens and Thessaloniki to 4 hours and 15 minutes. But what is really remarkable is that these works are concluding a series of upgrade works dating back in the early 1970s, more than 45 years ago. It took many different administrations in the course of 5 decades to entirely complete a covered Motorway with upgraded safety features, dozens of tunnels and bridges and significant technical works.

Mr. Christos Spirtzis, during his visit stated: “The longest tunnel in the Balkans is now complete. An effort is underway and I believe that till the end of March all outstanding construction works will be finished, fulfilling a dream of many generations.”

Regarding the toll stations at Tempi area, Mr. Spirtzis added: “At Tempi as well as in the rest of the motorway network, toll stations will be installed in accordance with the initial contracts. Our goal is, by early 2018 to introduce proportional toll charges”.

 

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com

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