Ionian Motorway: funding for extension towards the Albanian borders is being finalised

We are in the final stretch to finalize the funding of the long-suffering project of upgrading the section of the Ionian Motorway, Ioannina-Kakavia. Yesterday the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport invited the Directorate of Road Infrastructure to proceed with the submission of proposals to mature the project. The next step is the inclusion of the project in the 2021-2025 SDP of the Ministry of Infrastructure so that the project can be tendered.

The project has been in the works for over ten years, but we are now literally a breath away from the tendering process.

The implementation of the Ioannina-Kakavia section is expected to be financed by the inclusion of the project in the NSRF 2021-2027 in the “Transportation” Operational Program. It will be one of the major road projects of the new programming period and depending on the course of the tender, the project could be completed by the end of the current decade.

Implementation in two parts

As it has become known, the project will be implemented in two parts. The Ioannina-Kalpaki section will be tendered as the main project and the Kalpaki-Kakavia section will proceed as an option. With approximately the same method, the project for the Chalkida and Psachni Bypass is currently being tendered. That is, there is a main project and then the option, i.e. the additional part to be built, is added to the construction object.

In order to reach the tender, it will be necessary to complete the Environmental Study (which is considered to be a matter of days) and then to approve its update by the Ministry of the Interior. This as the Kalpaki-Kakavia section did not have environmental conditions and the Ministry of Energy had to run the relevant process.

The first very big project in Epirus after 2017

However, it is worth mentioning that it will be the first very large infrastructure project in Epirus, after the completion of the Ionian Highway in 2017.

The Ioannina-Kakavia project belongs to the new generation road projects of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. This is a series of projects that will start gradually from 2023 and 2024. Among them are VOAK (Chania-Hersonissos and Hersonissos-Naples sections), the extension of Kymi Av., as a project of the Attiki Odos, the Chalkida bypass, the road section Bralos-Amfissa, the axes Kalamata-Methoni, Thessaloniki-Edessa and Drama-Amphipoli. Together in the same category are the urban road projects for the flyover of Regional Thessaloniki and the Skaramanga Triple Junction.

An important element is that the axis will have features of a closed highway in which 14 uneven junctions are planned. The road will start with a connection to an uneven junction on Egnatia Odos. The rest of the junctions are planned to be built in the following locations: Kosmira-Asvestochori, Grammenochoria, Passaronos, Zitsas, Karyes, Kalpaki, Doliana, Ravenia, Vissani, Delvinaki, Zavrocho, Kitsmata, Kakavia.