Last night in Bosanska Gradiska, the completion of the construction of the bridge over the Sava River between the two neighboring countries was solemnized, but it is unknown when this bridge will be in operation.
The Minister of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Vojin Mitrovic, said yesterday that the completed project includes a 462-meter-long bridge, access roads from BiH side of 411 meters and the access road from the Croatian side of about 50 meters.
”The connecting road on the Croatian side is the subject of Croatian investment, the contract has been signed, the contractor has been introduced to the works. According to the information I have, the completion of the works on this access road in the length of about four kilometers is scheduled for February 2024,” said Mitrovic.
In order for this newly built bridge to be functional, it is also necessary to resolve the issue of the border crossing.
Mitrovic reminded that last year BiH sent an initiative to adapt the border crossing built in BiH, and to create an integrated border crossing.
”We have informed all the necessary institutions, we have certain problems,” Mitrovic told and added that the Croatian side is also interested in it.
Mitrovic emphasized that currently, in case the crossing is not integrated, it is necessary to design it in Croatia, to call for a tender and to do it.
Slobodan Stanarevic, acting director of the Public Enterprise Autoputevi of Republika Srpska (RS), said that the deadline for the construction of the bridge was fully met.
”The contracting period was a little longer, there were delays in communication in past convocations. It was done within the financial framework, with small overruns of three or four percent. Everything was completely respected in terms of deadline, price, quality,” said Stanarevic.
The construction of the bridge began in September 2019.
The contracted value of the works is 19.6 million euros without VAT, half of the construction was financed by Croatian Autoceste (Highways), and the other half by the Ministry of Communications and Transport of BiH. The European Union (EU) co-finances the construction of the the interstate bridge with 3.2 million euros in grants.
