Among the big promises made by Boiko Borissov during the parliamentary elections campaign in the summer of 2009, one most certainly resonated with those holidaymakers who chose to spend their time on the southern half of Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast. Borissov’s pledge to make the country’s highways one of the focal points of his government was echoed by the Regional Development Minister in the new cabinet, Rossen Plevneliev, as soon as the government took office.

Almost six months later, there has been little construction, but the preparatory work put in during that time should ensure that the process of picking the construction companies that would build the highways is more transparent, according to Plevneliev.

By June 2012, the Cabinet wants to have completed three highways, a commitment that Plevneliev reiterated when he appeared on the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) morning show on January 19.

Some delay was caused by administrative issues, including the transfer of the National Road Infrastructure Agency back to the Regional Development Ministry and the two changes of the agency’s head.

The ministry has also had to rewrite the rules for the public tenders it calls, with the end result that the tender to pick the construction company to build the first of three remaining sections of Trakiya Highway was called in November instead of September.

The tender paperwork attracted wide interest and was bought by more than 50 companies, according to the ministry, but only eight bids were submitted before the deadline.

After the opening of the bids on January 15, which happened amid draconian security measures meant to ensure that the paperwork was not tampered with, Plevneliev said that he was optimistic that the tenders for the other two sections of Trakiya Highway would draw more offers because potential bidders would be persuaded by the transparent way the ministry has handled the first bid.

Bulgaria has split the 115km of Trakiya Highway that are yet to be built into three sections. The first tender is for the stretch between Stara Zagora and Nova Zagora, with tenders for the Nova Zagora–Yambol and Yambol–Karnobat stretches scheduled for the next month-and-a-half, Plevneliev told BNT.

The first-sod ceremony for the Stara Zagora–Nova Zagora has already been scheduled for May 3, even though the project lacks several key permits.
"Trakiya Highway is still missing the construction permit, nor is the environmental impact assessment ready, nor are the archaeological digs done. We are doing everything possible to have all those things done, we have a very complex schedule to ensure that all of this is completed by end-April and we can have the first-sod ceremony on May 3," Plevneliev said.

It was possible that because of the tight schedule, the project would not have European Union funding secured by the time construction begins. However, that would not be a big issue, according to Plevneliev, because the European Commission was being kept informed of the project’s progress.
"They know. The same thing happened with the refuse treatment plant and the Sofia metro. This is not a drama," Plevneliev told BNT.

Lyulin delays?
Lyulin Highway, at 19km the shortest of the six highways on the drawing board, is the closest to completion, with six km already finished. Turkey’s Mapa-Cengiz consortium, contracted to built the highway, was due to submit its schedule for the completion of the project to the Cabinet on January 20.

Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, who met Mapa-Cengiz executives the previous week, reiterated the Government’s demand that the highway is completed by the end of 2010.
According to Plevneliev, the consortium is now working on the bridges and the first of the highway’s three tunnels.

Trakiya Highway bidders

Dogus Insaat is the Turkish company that built the Karnobat-Bourgas stretch of Trakiya Highway, in use since 2006. The company has also won the tender to build the stretch of the Sofia Metro second line between Nadezhda borough and Patriarh Evtimii Boulevard.

Austria’s Strabag is best known in Bulgaria for the controversies surrounding the new terminal of Sofia Airport, which included delays, demands for more money and a poorly-built roof that collapsed.

Holding Putishta, owned by businessman Vassil Bozhkov, is one of Bulgaria’s biggest construction companies, which built stretches of Maritsa Highway in the past. The company bid in consortium with Austria’s Alpine.

Trace Group is another major Bulgarian construction company. It built the Orizovo-Stara Zagora stretch of Trakiya Highway and is now building the stretch of the Sofia Metro’s second line between Patriarh Evtimii and Cherni Vruh boulevards.

Bulgarski Magistrali is a consortium that includes major Bulgarian construction company Glavbolgarstroi; ISA2000 that built stretches of Strouma Highway; and Avtomagistrali Cherno More, which built the Shoumen-Varna stretch of Hemus Highway.

Terna, one of Greece’s major construction firms, bid to build Lyulin Highway, but lost. In Sofia, it built the Carrefour Mall on Tsarigradsko Chaussee Boulevard.
Aktor, another major Greek construction company, lost bids to build Lyulin Highway and Sofia Metro stretches.

Konstruktor-Trakiya is a joint venture between Croatian firm Konstructor, which has bid in Bulgarian public tenders in the past but never won, and another company controlled by Bozhkov, Plovdiv-based Putni Stroezhi.