E65 Motorway’s Southern section receives “green light” by the European Commission

After a long wait of almost 2 years, financing of the E65 Motorway’s Southern section, Lamia – Ksiniada, was finally approved, safe sources told ypodomes.com. According to a senior official from the Ministry of Infrastructure, European Commission services (DG Comp, DG Move, etc.) completed the process that has lasted over 2 years in total.

According to the same sources, negotiations were protracted a detailed analysis of the entire envelope about the motorway and its usefulness was required. Now. the next step is for the contract to be sent to the Court of Audit allowing it to be ratified by the Greek Parliament. The construction stage is expected to begin immediately after the signing of the contract which will be the last step of the process while TERNA is fully ready to start the construction works.

The completion of the Southern part of E65 will also mean its direct connection to PAThE motorway axis and the country’s network in general. Currently the operational section of E65 extends from Ksiniada to Trikala, with a length of 80 km and, although it is a modern, covered motorway with 2 lanes (+ emergency lane) per direction, it is characterized as “blind” due to its lack of connections with the rest of the network.

Lamia – Ksiniada section will be 32.5 km-long, with a cost of 310m euros. The construction period is expected to last roughly 3 years. The largest technical work of this part is the 3 km-long Domokos Tunnel which has already been drlled by 33%. 

It should be noted, however, that the approval of the Southern section will be, in fact, a precondition for the future implementation of the Northern section from Trikala up to connection with Egnatia Motorway that will fully complete the E65 Motorway from the town of Lamia to Kipourio Grevenon (Egnatia Motorway). Nevertheless, it is said that due to the expected improvement of daily traffic loads, financing of Trikala – Egnatia Motorway by EIB will be made even easier. The construction phase of this particular section could start after 2019.

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com