“Blue Corridor”: a new road will connect Greece and Albania

During the year, a tender will be held for the construction of the Ioannina-Kalpaki-Kakavia road, which is part of the “Blue Corridor” connecting Kalamata with northern Italy.

The regional governor of Epirus, Alekos Kakrimanis, during a meeting of the Regional Council, expressed confidence that the tender for the unification of the Ioannina-Kakavia roads will be completed before the end of the year, writes carandmotor.gr.

New motorway

With a budget of about 240 million euros, the Ioannina-Kalpaki-Kakavia highway will be a modern closed highway of about 70 km with two lanes in each direction (plus LEA).

The highway is expected to be built with funds from Εταιρικό Σύμφωνο για το Πλαίσιο Ανάπτυξης (ΕΣΠΑ), with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport already including it in the development program for 2021-2027.

The regional authorities of Epirus handed over to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport:

• Contractual issues of the Ioannina-Kalpaki section.
• Estimation of the budget for the re-equipment of the roadway from four-lane to three-lane.
• Contractual issues for the Kalpaki-Kakavia section.
• Road construction study of the Kalpaki-Kakavia section and 15 km of side branches of the road network.

The new Ioannina-Kalpaki-Kakavia road will connect Greece with Albania and will form part of the Blue Corridor, a 1,500-kilometer road network that will stretch from northern Italy to Kalamata along the coast.

In total, 8 countries participate in the Blue Corridor project: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. Construction work in Croatia has made significant progress and it is expected that the Croatian section of the Blue Corridor will be commissioned by the end of this year.

In Albania, construction was scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2020, but the pandemic froze the project. The Albanian section of the Blue Corridor has a total length of 315 kilometers.

The Greek part of the Blue Corridor will start with a junction (junction) at Egnatia Odos, while other junctions are planned to be built at Kosmira-Asvestochori, Grammenochoria, Passaronos, Zitsas, Karies, Kalpaki, Doliana, Ravenia, Visanni, Delvinaki, Zavrocho, Ktimata and Kakavia (Κοσμηρά- Ασβεστοχώρι, Γραμμενοχώρια, Πασσαρώνος, Ζίτσας, Καρυές, Καλπάκι, Δολιανά, Ραβένια, Βήσσανη, Δελβινάκι, Ζάβροχο, Κτίσματα και Κακαβιά).

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