English
Ten years after the design phase, construction officially began today on the highway section from Bukojcani to Kicevo. This section is part of Corridor 8 and will link the Kicevo–Ohrid highway with the highway running from Tetovo through Gostivar to Bukojcani.
The highway will feature two traffic lanes and one hard shoulder in each direction, with a speed limit ranging from 110 to 130 kilometers per hour. The section will include five bridges, one tunnel, two viaducts, and two interchanges. Construction is scheduled to be completed within four years. Funding of the difficult section that will bypass the notorious Straza mountain pass has been secured through a €119 million loan from the EBRD, supplemented by a €20 million grant from the European Union and €300,000 provided via the European Union’s Western Balkans Fund.
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, speaking at the official launch of construction, stated that this highway section gives the entire project coherence by establishing a continuous highway link between Skopje and Ohrid.
Upon taking office in 2024, the Government’s policy was to transform the country into a crossroads based on four pillars. We started with three pillars, but over time we expanded that goal and challenge, and today we speak of four pillars. This involves serving as a crossroads for two Pan-European corridors—Corridor 8 and Corridor 10—encompassing road, rail, energy, and gas infrastructure. In this way, the country’s geostrategic importance becomes a source of greater strength for all citizens and a prerequisite for the development of modern industries; the state gains significant added value compared to the past, Mickoski said in his address.
Twenty-seven months into the Government’s term, Mickoski noted, the first indicators are emerging to show that the country is moving in the right direction.
“The initial indicators regarding this Government’s performance after 27 or 28 months of dedicated work show results in the form of numerous projects and stabilization—achieved even though we inherited a state heading straight for the abyss and faced a global energy crisis of a magnitude unprecedented in human history,” Mickoski emphasized.