Pan-European Transport Corridor VIII
The Pan-European Transport Corridor VIII is a transport axis from Albania via North Macedonia to Bulgaria . Pan-European transport corridors are important international transport axes, which are intended to contribute to the economic exchange of goods and the upswing in Eastern Europe on rail and road, in some cases also combined. The corridor is an important economic artery in Albania and Bulgaria.
The Pan-European Transport Corridor VIII - usually referred to as Corridor VIII in Albania - connects the Albanian Adriatic ports with the Black Sea as a west-east axis in the southern Balkans and is considered a combined transport axis . Bulgaria and North Macedonia are supposed to get better access to the west. Like the other countries, Albania is hoping for an economic upswing as a result.
A continuous rail link is not realistic in the near future. In Albania there is a railway line to Lake Ohrid . However, this is in poor condition, the trains only run once a day and the journey takes several hours because of the low speed. There is no east-west connection in North Macedonia. In the direction of Albania, the railways run to Kičevo , there is no connection to Bulgaria. As early as 1910, today's Bulgarian-North Macedonian border town of Gjueschewo was connected to the Bulgarian railway system.
Course and status of the expansion
| No. | Route | Length (km) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VIII | Albania | North Macedonia | Bulgaria | 1,300 | ||
| Durrës and Vlora - Elbasan | - | Struga - Tetovo - Skopje - Kriva Palanka | - | Kyustendil ( Bulgaria ) - Pernik - Sofia - Plovdiv - Burgas and Varna | ||
Albania
The entire stretch of the corridor in Albania is in mint condition. Most of the national roads follow the ancient Roman road Via Egnatia and were expanded or renewed in the 21st century. In contrast, the Hekurudha Shqiptare railway lines are in poor condition. The wagons are old and only run one to three times a day; on the route between Librazhd and Pogradec, traffic was completely stopped.
From the port of Durrës , where the traffic corridor VIII begins, the SH 4 runs along the bay of Durrës as a developed motorway via the tourist town of Golem to Kavaja , bypasses this town and at Rrogozhina includes the section of Vlora that is consistently - with the exception of not yet built bypass of Fier - is developed as a motorway. This section is also marked as SH 4 between Rrogozhina and Fier, from Fier to Vlora it is marked as SH 8 . At Rrogozhina, corridor VIII continues as SH 7 via Peqin to the industrial city of Elbasan and follows the Shkumbin river to the Qafë Thana pass , where the corridor as SH 9 leads to the North Macedonian border not far from Lake Ohrid . The entire route from Rrogozhina to North Macedonia has been upgraded to a new, but partly winding road.
The ports of Durrës and Vlora have also been modernized and expanded. There are currently no plans to expand the Rrogozhina – North Macedonia route into a motorway.
North Macedonia
The axis of the corridor includes the M2 and M3 motorways , some of which are already in existence, but some are just planned . The northern bypass of the capital Skopje was opened to traffic on June 22, 2009. The construction of a motorway between Gostivar and the Albanian border near Struga is still being planned, the current road is already out of date; old bridges and crumbling cliffs harbor serious risks and dangers. An expressway is planned between Kumanovo and the Bulgarian border.
A continuous rail link is also planned for the entire corridor, with plans being drawn up for the Skopje-Sofia route as early as 1897. The project in North Macedonia has been suspended since 2006. The detailed planning of the 63 km long new railway line from Kičevo to the Albanian border on Lake Ohrid was put out to tender in December 2012. The planning order should be carried out after 24 months. In September 2012, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski announced that the government, led by VMRO-DPMNE, is expected to start work on upgrading a motorway on the Gostivar- Kičevo route in 2013 .
On November 12, 2013, the North Macedonian government signed an agreement with the Chinese Sinohydro Corporation Limited to build the Skopje - Štip and Kičevo - Ohrid motorways . The latter is part of the Pan-European Transport Corridor VIII. Construction work on the two routes began in 2016 and will cost more than 600 million euros. The motorways will have two lanes and a hard shoulder in each direction, separated in the middle by a green strip. The Kičevo – Ohrid motorway will have a length of 56.7 kilometers and a maximum speed of 120 km / h.
Bulgaria
In Bulgaria, the 360-kilometer Thrace motorway connecting Burgas with Sofia was completed in August 2013. Its further course to the west, the Awtomagistrala Lyulin from Sofia to Pernik, was opened in spring 2011. The expansion of the two-lane road from Pernik via Kyustendil to the North Macedonian border at the Gjueschewo border crossing is also in the process of project work .
The railway line from the North Macedonian border via Kyustendil to Radomir is in poor condition and is not electrified, the maximum speed in many parts is only 25 km / h. From there via Sofia and Plovdiv to Varna, the line is electrified and is already being completed for a top speed of 160 km / h.
Construction work on the sections from Plovdiv to Burgas and from Plovdiv to Septemwri began in 2011 and should be completed by the end of 2013 and 2015, respectively. Plans to modernize the section from Radomir to Gjueschewo have also been completed, and construction is expected to begin in 2014. After the modernization, the entire route between the Black Sea and the Macedonian border should allow a maximum speed of 160 km / h.
Movie
In 2008 Bulgarian director Boris Despodow presented the documentary Corridor # 8 at the Berlinale . The background was a trip that he wanted to organize from Sofia to Tirana, but that seemed impossible. Boris Despodow then drove the route from Burgas to Durrës and filmed the everyday life of the people along this route.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Еврокоридор 8 затъва в глуха линия (Corridor VIII on the siding?). In: mediapool.bg. October 12, 2011, Retrieved October 12, 2011 (Bulgarian).
- ↑ Press release from June 23, 2009 at novost
- ↑ Preparation of a detailed draft and tender documents for the construction of a new railway section from Kicevo to the border with the Republic of Albania as part of Corridor VIII as well as tender documents for construction supervision. Tenders Electronic Daily , accessed December 21, 2012 .
- ↑ Gruevski: 'Në vitin 2013 fillon ndërtimi i autostradave'. (No longer available online.) In: Alsat-M . September 23, 2012, archived from the original on September 25, 2012 ; Retrieved September 24, 2012 (Albanian). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Highway from Skopje to Ohrid and Miladinovci to Štip. In: InvestInSEE.com. June 2018, accessed on September 22, 2019 .
- ^ Corridor VIII Highway - from Skopje to Ohrid. In: InvestInSEE.com. May 2019, accessed on September 22, 2019 .
- ↑ Për 580 milionë euro kinezët do t'i ndërtojnë dy autostradat drejt Ohrit e Shtipit (for 580 million euros the Chinese will build the highways to Ohrid and Štip). (No longer available online.) In: Struga Sot. Archived from the original on December 16, 2013 ; Retrieved December 16, 2013 (Albanian). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The film: Corridor # 8 at the Berlinale 2008
