The Europe motorway (, ), designated A6, is a motorway that will link the

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

n capital

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

with

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

at the

Kalotina Kalotina ( bg, Калотина ) is a village in Dragoman Municipality, Sofia Province, in westernmost central Bulgaria. As of 2010 it has 270 inhabitants and the mayor is Lidia Bozhilova. The village is located at the border with Serbia, 55 ...

border crossing. Spanning approximately , the motorway is planned to be connected with the Serbian A4 motorway. In 2018 the government changed its name from Kalotina motorway to Europe motorway, as well as merging the Northern Sofia Bypass in it and designating it A6.

Tenders

The first 31.5 km of the motorway (Kalotina– Herakovo) were tendered in 2012, and the construction works were expected to begin in 2013. The route in the tendered section follows the existing major road 8/

European route E80 European route E 80, also known as Trans-European Motorway or TEM, is an A-Class West-East European route, extending from Lisbon, Portugal to Gürbulak, Turkey, on the border with Iran. The road connects 10 countries and has a length ...

road and also is part of Pan-European Corridor X, branch C. In October 2013 the tender procedure was cancelled due to lacking financing under the allocated for Bulgaria EU funds. In May 2014, the section between Kalotina and Herakovo was retendered. This time it has been divided into 2 sublots, Kalotina-

Dragoman A dragoman or Interpretation was an interpreter, translator, and official guide between Turkish-, Arabic-, and Persian-speaking countries and polities of the Middle East and European embassies, consulates, vice-consulates and trading posts. A ...

and Dragoman-Herakovo. The costs are estimated at 200 million levs (102.26 million euro). Later, this tender also was cancelled. On September 13, 2017, the sections Kalotina-Dragoman and Dragoman-Slivnitsa were put to tender; Strabag is to build the first section, GBS-Infrastructure the latter.

Construction

Construction of the 17 km long Dragoman - Slivnitsa section was launched in the second half of May 2019 and was opened in November 2020 Construction of Dragoman - Kalotina section is currently ongoing. There is presently a 4-lane undivided highway between Slivnitsa and the Sofia Ring Road.

Exits

Northern Bypass Highway

The Northern Bypass Highway or Sofia Northern Speed Tangent (, ) is a dual carriageway,

grade separated In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights (grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tra ...

road with

controlled-access A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

, designed for high speeds. The Northern Bypass has three traffic lanes and an emergency lane in each carriageway. The motorway gets around the

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from north to carry the transit traffic, which otherwise would pass through the city or via the

Sofia ring road The Sofia ring road ( bg, Софийски околовръстен път, ''Sofíyski okolovrásten pat''), also called in Bulgarian Okolovrástnoto shosé (''Околовръстното шосе'', The ring chaussée), often shortened to just ...

. The Bypass is an important

thoroughfare A thoroughfare is a primary passage or way as a transit route through regularly trafficked areas, whether by road on dry land or, by extension, via watercraft or aircraft. On land, a thoroughfare may refer to anything from a multi-lane highwa ...

, as it connects four motorways - A1 Trakia motorway (via the Sofia ring road), A2 Hemus motorway and the A3 Struma motorway. Also, it connects 3 Pan-European corridors - IV, VIII and X.

Construction

In 2012, a tender for construction was announced. Construction works were expected to begin in 2013, but due to litigation the contract for design and build was signed in February 2014. The term for implementation of the contract is 18 months. Due to land expropriation issues, the construction works started in February 2015. The first 13 kilometers of the motorway were opened in the end of 2015 and the remaining segment was inaugurated on 28 April 2016.

Gallery

File:AM Evropa Dragoman-Slivnica 1.jpg, Europe motorway near Slivnitsa File:AM Evropa Dragoman-Slivnica 2.jpg, Europe motorway

Notes

References

{{coord missing, Bulgaria Motorways in Bulgaria Proposed roads in Bulgaria Pan-European Corridor VIII