Northern section of E65 Motorway and Chalkida Road Detour to be co-funded by EIB

The implementation of 2 very large road projects for the country will be supported through… Europe. According to the General Secretary of Infrastructure who spoke at Ypodomes.com, EIB sees very positively the funding of E65’s Northern section (i.e. from Trikala to Egnatia Motorway) as well as Chalkida Road Detour, with a total cost of 600mln euros.

“We are in negotiations with EIB for these 2 projects and we are optimistic that we will have positive developments and announcements for their implementation really soon”, Mr. Dedes noted. If all goes as planned, EIB will finance the project by approximately 50% (this is a common practice for such projects). The remaining funds will be covered by NSRF or Public Investments Program.

E65 Motorway

The Northern section of E65 is considered to be crucial for the motorway’s completion making the 155 km long axis, a thoroughfare between Egnatia Motorway (North) and Athens-Thessaloniki Motorway (South). The cost of the project reaches 400mln euros while the construction of its Southern section (Lamia-Xyniada) is expected to start in the Summer. It is noted that the project has approved environmental licensing and feasibility study.

The project will be implemented by TERNA. If funding is secured, the project is very likely to start in 2018. Of course, before that, the contract must be awarded by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and Finance and, consequently, must be ratified in the Greek Parliament. A remaining issue is the completion of expropriations. Construction period will last for 3 years.

Chalkida Road Detour

Regarding Chalkida Road Detour, the cost is estimated at 200mln euros and, if a “green light” is given by EIB, an acceleration is expected with a call for tenders as soon as in the Summer. The scope of the project is a covered motorway with a length of 17 km long, 2 lanes per direction (+emergency lane), making it the very first section of a safe and modern motorway on the island of Evia.

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com

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