All set for the opening of the Medjugorje - Bijača motorway section

With the opening of the motorway section from the Medjugorje interchange to the Bijača International Border Crossing, which will be officially opened today at 7:00 PM, Bosnia and Herzegovina will gain ten new kilometres of modern motorway, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria (NAP).

This section includes two bridges, Studenčica and Trebižat, the Pavlovići viaduct, and the Bijela Vlaka tunnel.

The Studenčica bridge is 555 metres long from one abutment to the other, with a maximum height of 81 metres above the valley. Four superstructures are placed on a total of five piers, each 12.4 metres wide, with a mutual distance of 120 metres.

Trebižat is 365 metres long with a maximum height of 59.5 metres, a somewhat smaller bridge requiring only three piers.

Work on this section began in June 2012, and the route was financed by a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) amounting to 62 million euros. The works were carried out by the Czech JV OHL ŽS and the Bosnian company Niskogradnja from Laktaši.

As announced by the Motorways of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the modern motorway from the Medjugorje interchange to the Bijača International Border Crossing is a key infrastructural prerequisite for the full realisation of the economy, and especially the tourist potential of southern Herzegovina.

The ten kilometres of the southern part of Corridor Vc are connected to the European road network via neighbouring Republic of Croatia, which will have multiple benefits for the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

By the end of this month, a tender will be announced for the selection of a contractor for the section from Medjugorje to Počitelj, including the connection with the M-17, so that construction in Herzegovina will continue at the beginning of next year.