Cracks were discovered on the bridge in Počitelj last year, which were successfully repaired at the beginning of this month. In the following period, the inspection of other fields will be continued and the final works on the bridge will be activated.
The repair of the bottom panel of the box of the fourth field of the Počitelj bridge, which was cracked, was successfully completed last weekend. Namely, as a result of the stretching of the steel cables, which are very important in the load-bearing capacity and statics of the bridge, there were certain deformations in the concrete itself, the so-called cracks.
“During the tensioning of the continuity cables, cracks appeared, which no one expected, and this has now been resolved. There are no more cracks, there were only cracks in that field four, that part of the concrete was removed, it was concreted again and now after stressing there are no there were no problems,” says supervising engineer Sanjin Jajić.
Regardless of the cracks, the stability of the bridge was never threatened. It was more of a phenomenon of a local character, which only affected the length of the bridge’s duration, say the Autoceste of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“In order for it to be completely in accordance with the project, for the bridge to be as it was intended in one hundred percent of its function, meaning safety and carrying capacity and speed of traffic, etc., we had to undertake all this, and I am grateful that we had the full agreement of all the factors that participated in that rehabilitation part”, says Denis Lasić, director of JP “Autoceste Federation of BiH”.
The construction of the section of Corridor 5C will be of great importance for Herzegovina, because it will be better connected to the Adriatic ports, Dalmatia. The highway, when fully operational, will connect Bosnia and Herzegovina with Europe, it will make Bosnia and Herzegovina more accessible, thus more attractive and competitive for investments.
“We know today that the port of Ploče is essentially the home port for BiH and a huge part of goods comes to that port. When it is connected to that southern part, we will have cheaper and more accessible transport for the whole of BiH”, says Marko Šantić, president of the FBiH Chamber of Commerce.
Corridor 5C should ultimately connect Budapest and Ploče by the shortest route through Slavonia through the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the south of Croatia. Through BiH, it remains to complete the connection on the section from Doboj to Zenica, and south of Sarajevo to the area south of Mostar, which will be the most demanding part. Completion of the works on the northern part of Corridor 5c is expected in 2026, and the construction of the complete Corridor 5c is expected in 2030 or 2031.
