RIA announced a public order for a pre-investment study of the section of the Struma highway in the direction of Sofia - Kulata outside the Kresna Gorge

The Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA) announced a public order for the preparation of a pre-investment study and design of the route of the Struma highway in the direction of Sofia - Kulata, which passes outside the Kresna Gorge. The deadline for submitting offers is April 29 of this year. This was announced by the agency today. The estimated value of the order is BGN 1 million without VAT and the funds are from the republican budget. The subject of the public procurement was discussed and consulted with the European Commission.

"The selected contractor will have to prepare preliminary design studies to ensure traffic from Sofia to the Tower outside the gorge in two directions. One is a duplicate two-way route on road I-1 outside the Kresna Gorge, and the other is the right lane of AM "Struma", lot 3.2 outside the gorge. The estimated length of each of the two routes is between 20-25 km, and they will pass near Simitli, Cherniche and Kresna," the RIA states.

The pre-project duplication route of road I-1 will conditionally start north of the "Simitli" road interchange, where the constructed lot 3.1 ends - the section Blagoevgrad - Krupnik, and its end will be at p. in "Kresna", where the commissioned lot 3.3 Kresna - Sandanski begins.

The pre-project right lane of AM "Struma", lot 3.2, will start at the "Simitli" road junction, and its end will be at the bypass of Kresna, which is part of the project lot 3.2.

The road agency specifies that the deadline for the implementation of the pre-investment study and design is 180 calendar days and will be carried out in three stages. The first will start from the date of signing the contract and will include the time to prepare a road safety impact assessment and submit the development to the RIA. The second stage will be from the date of acceptance of the road safety impact assessment report and will include the time for the preparation of the pre-investment study with design and delivery of the development. In the second stage is the examination and acceptance of the development (variant solutions) by the Expert Technical and Economic Council. Based on the developed alternative solutions for the two routes, the Contracting Authority will carry out the relevant environmental procedures. In the third stage is the handing over of the pre-project development, presenting the engineering-geological and hydrogeological survey carried out on the routes approved by the competent authority for environment and water, which must be implemented in the "Conceptual project" phase.

It is clear from the announcement that RIA is also announcing a public contract for monitoring 4 species of reptiles in the section of the first-class road I-1 (E-79) through the Kresna gorge. "The study will cover the spiny and spiny-tailed turtles, striped and leopard smoky, which are subject to conservation in the Kresna-Ilindenci Habitat Protected Area. The deadline for submitting offers is April 29 this year. The indicative value is BGN 400 thousand without VAT and the funds are provided by the republican budget. The research will be conducted in three periods: spring, summer and autumn. Based on the data from the monitoring of the populations of the different species of reptiles, the number of populations in the area of E-79 will be analyzed, the effectiveness of the facilities for mitigating the negative effects on the fauna will be evaluated, etc. The monitoring will be carried out for a period of 4 years," the Agency says.