The European Investment Bank (EIB) will provide grant assistance to the State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) to develop a feasibility study for the construction of the Lviv-Mukachevo-Uzhgorod highway with a branch to the Hungarian border, the agency’s press service has reported. “This corridor is very important for Ukraine, because the export flow to the countries of Southern and South-Western Europe is directed through it. In addition, the new road will also provide a stable communication with Zakarpattia region,” Oleksandr Kava, the adviser to the Ukravtodor head, said.
According to the report, the new road will connect with the Hungarian M3 highway through the Dyida checkpoint and the Slovak D1 highway through the Uzhgorod checkpoint.
The maximum speed on the highway will be 130 km/h.
“This road will reduce the trip time in the direction of Lviv-Mukachevo to an hour and a half instead of the current 3.5 hours,” the report says.
Germany could finance construction of the Mariupol-Zaporizhia highway, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan wrote on his Facebook page on Monday. “Germany is considering the possibility of allocating financing to build the road in Eastern Ukraine. Probably it will be the Mariupol–Zaporizhia road. It will be the first real highway in Ukraine built according to all EU requirements,” he said.
According to the minister, together with Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, the certification of this new type of transport (highway) by TÜV SÜD, the leading German safety association has been launched. As reported, last week in Germany Omelyan held talks with the ministries of economy and transport, and met with Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier.
Earlier, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the state targeted economic program for the development of public roads of state importance for 2018-2022.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov hope that the towns of Reni in Odesa region and Varna in Bulgaria would be connected by a highway.
“We have arranged that we would step up the issues of building a highway of the transport corridor between Reni in Odesa region and Varna [in Bulgaria] across Romania. I hope that the resources of the European Union will be on our side as well. We will also attract our Romanian partners. And we will do our best to ensure that in the near future you can drive from Odesa to Varna in a few hours,” Poroshenko told reporters on Saturday in Kyiv after the negotiations with the Bulgarian prime minister.
An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported that Poroshenko showed a map, which the Bulgarian prime minister brought, indicating the route of building the transport corridor.
“The map, which the president showed, lacks the signature of the Romanian side. The construction of this road will not be very expensive. It could be public private partnership or a joint fund of three states,” the president said.
