Instead of 2010, the date promised by Prime Minister Robert Fico when he came into office in June 2006, Slovakia’s first highway connecting Bratislava and Košice will be finished by late 2012. Economy Minister Ľubomír Jahnátek told South Korean Ambassador Seok-soong Seo about the revised plans.
The minister informed the ambassador that the highway’s completion by the end of 2012 would significantly improve conditions for the arrival of foreign investments in eastern Slovakia, the Economy Ministry was quoted as saying by the SITA newswire.
However, the 2012 date does not include completion of the final sections of the D1 highway involving tunnels and complex engineering projects, which is covered by the third public-private partnership (PPP) highway construction package.
According to a concession agreement for the construction of the D1 via the third PPP package, which was signed on January 22 by the Transport Ministry and representatives of licence-holder Žilinská Diaľnica, s.r.o., the highway sections between Hričovské Podhradie and Lietavská Lúčka (11.3 km), Lietavská Lúčka and Višňové (5.4 km), Višňové and Dubná Skala (8.1 km) and Lietavská Lúčka and Žilina (5.9 km) are supposed to be finished only after 2012. The first two sections will be open for traffic in the spring of 2013, according to the agreed timetable. The remaining two sections, including the approximately 8-kilometre-long Višňové-Dubná Skala tunnel, are slated for completion in the autumn of 2014. SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
