The Government of North Macedonia has chosen the American engineering firm Bechtel and its joint venture (JV) partner Enka to build two new motorways. Corridor 8 motorway is an east-west route connecting the Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea and stretches towards North Macedonia, Albania, and Bulgaria.
The other highway is Corridor 10d, a crucial section of Pan-European Transport Corridor 10, which connects Greece, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Serbia. The total length of these two new highways will be 110 km.
The construction of the two motorways is expected to start this year. “The construction of these motorways is of incredible importance for the improvement and modernisation of our infrastructure,” said Dimitar Kovaevski, the prime minister of North Macedonia. The country will become more accessible to foreign investment thanks to these two corridors. They will also provide a crucial link for our regional transportation network.
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Construction of the two new motorways
Mark Allison, general manager of Bechtel’s Heavy Civil Infrastructure business, stated: “We are thrilled to work with the North Macedonian Government on this exciting new transportation project that will enhance connectivity in the area and boost the local economy. Bechtel-Enka has a long history of completing challenging motorway projects in the area. Thus, we take very seriously our duty to uphold the highest standards. The contract will prioritise hiring local workers and utilising local suppliers when building the highways.
This is the largest infrastructure project in our country,” said first deputy prime minister Artan Grubi.” We are incredibly grateful for signing the memorandum with Bechtel and Enka. Two years later, we have completed all the necessary procedures and negotiations to sign the contract. Thus, the construction work will begin in the coming weeks.”
Since the 1990s, the Bechtel-Enka partnership has completed significant regional infrastructure projects. It includes the construction of motorways in Albania, Croatia, Turkey, and Romania. They previously worked on Route 7 in Kosovo. Together, they have built 26 major bridges, 100 tunnels, and more than 28,000 km of highways and roads.
