Pelješac bridge

Infobox_Bridge
bridge_name= Pelješac Bridge


caption=Location of the Pelješac bridge in Southern Croatia (in red)
official_name=
also_known_as=
carries= 4-lane wide roadway
crosses= Neretva channel / Mali Ston bay
locale= South-east Croatia
maint=
id=
design= Cable-stayed bridge
mainspan=convert|568|m
length=convert|2374|m
width=convert|21|m
clearance=
below=convert|55|m
traffic=
open=
closed=
toll=
map_cue=
map_

map_text=
map_width=
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lat=
long= The Pelješac bridge is a bridge intended to connect the Croatian peninsula of Pelješac with the Croatian mainland, spanning the bay between the two.

Because the Croatian mainland is intersected by a small strip of the coast around the town of Neum which is part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the bridge would also physically connect the southernmost part of Dalmatia with the rest of Croatia.

Characteristics

The new Pelješac bridge will be a convert|2374|m|ft|adj=on|sp=us long, convert|55|m|ft|adj=on|sp=us high beam and cable-stayed bridge, with a main span of convert|568|m|ft. It will be convert|21|m|ft wide, enough to accommodate 4 lanes of traffic. This span will be the second largest in Europe. The two pylons will be convert|115|m|ft above the road deck, convert|170|m|ft above sea level, and convert|240|m|ft above the seabed. The beam part of the bridge will be composed of 10 smaller pylons, each built at convert|180|m|ft apart, with a span of 180 meters. The whole bridge will be the 18th longest in Europe.

Beside the construction of the bridge, there will be construction of accessing roads at the both sides of the bridge, including 2 tunnels on Peljesac (one convert|2170|m|ft|-1 and other convert|450|m|ft|-1 long) as well as two smaller bridges on Peljesac, (one convert|500|m|ft|-2 and another convert|50|m|ft|-1 long).

It has not yet been announced whether the bridge will form a part of the A1 highway, currently connecting Zagreb and Šestanovac. Because the Croatian territory on the route from Neum to Dubrovnik is a fairly narrow strip of land, albeit implausible, it is not impossible that the highway would be built inland, in Herzegovina, with connections to the coast. Currently, the road from Ploče via the bridge towards Dubrovnik is planned to be a highway. However, the road from Dubrovnik to Debeli Brijeg (border crossing with Montenegro) is not planned as a highway but as an expressway, and even that route is not strictly defined yet.

Construction

Croatian minister of infrastructure Božidar Kalmeta said in May 2007 that preparations for the construction of the bridge were going according to plan, and that an initial tender was under preparation. Kalmeta added that the question of when the construction works will begin depends on whether a constructor would be selected in the first round. [Croatian Ministry of Sea, Tourism, Transport and Development - [http://www.mmtpr.hr/default.asp?ID=3639 Kalmeta and Ljubic on Croatia's plan to build Peljesac bridge] ]

On June 11, 2007, Croatian Roads announced a public auction for the construction of the bridge. On August 28, the list of bidders was released:
* Konstruktor inženjering, Viadukt and Hidroelektra (from Croatia)
* Dywidag (Germany), Strabag (Austria), Cimola (Italy), Eiffel (France)
* Alpina Bau (from Salzburg, Austria)

Kalmeta confirmed construction works were to start in Autumn 2007. The contractor is obliged to complete the project in four years. Construction costs were estimated at HRK 1.9 billion, nearly 260 million euros.Limun.hr [http://www.limun.hr/en/main.aspx?id=166524 Kalmeta: Bridge to Peljesac in 2011] ] Kalmeta's late August estimate about the building cost of "under 300 million euros" proved to be accurate.

The construction will be financed by Croatian Roads and by loans by European investment banks.

On September 14, 2007, the Ministry of Construction announced that the Konstruktor/Viadukt/Hidroelektra consortium won the contest and that they will sign a contract for 1,945,388,829.86 kuna, or roughly 265 million euros at the time.

Construction works on the northern and southern termini commenced on October 24, 2007, with sea works starting in the autumn of 2008.

Criticisms

The idea that a large bridge should connect Pelješac with the mainland has caused concern among the ecological activists in Croatia, who opposed it because a potential damage to the sea life in the bay of Mali Ston, as well as the mariculture.fact|date=August 2008

The idea was also opposed on various economical reasons - whether such a bridge is really necessary as opposed to making a different deal with Bosnia and Herzegovina, [Nacional - [http://www.nacional.hr/en/articles/view/21687/ Interview with President Mesić] ] whether it is too expensive if built according to ecological demands, or whether it is best replaced with an undersea tunnel. [KorčulaInfo - [http://www.korculainfo.com/blog/index.php/peljesac-bridge-or-tunnel/ The Peljesac Bridge would be much better off as a Tunnel] ]

The construction of the bridge also caused problems with the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They opposed the building of the bridge, originally planned to be only 35 meters high, because it would have made it impossible for large ships to enter Neum. Although the harbour of Neum currently cannot be used for commercial traffic, the Bosnian government declared that in the future a new harbour might be built, and that the construction of the bridge would harm this ambition.

Prime minister Ivo Sanader persisted with the bridge idea, appeasing the BiH side by changing the design of the bridge to the current plans. The two sides agreed on the construction of the bridge in early December 2006. In June 2007, after the tender was published, the media reported renewed opposition from the Bosnia and Herzegovina State Border Commission. In early July 2007, Haris Silajdžić stated that members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina thought that the bridge should be built only after the sea border is determined. Bosnia and Herzegovina stated they will sue Croatia, if the bridge is really built unilaterally. [BBC - [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7062107.stm Bosnia vexed by Croatian bridge] ]

References

External links

* [http://daily.tportal.hr/article.aspx?aID=2469&kID=1 Construction on Pelješac Bridge starts, Brijest, October 24th, 2007]
*PDFlink| [http://www.edubrovnik.org/most_kopno_peljesac/most_s_pristupnim_cestama.pdf Detailed map of the location of the bridge (North)] |286 KiB .
*.
*PDFlink| [http://www.casopis-gradjevinar.hr/dokumenti/200203/5.pdf Study on the motorway between Ploče, Dubrovnik and border crossing with Montenegro at Debeli Brijeg, including the Pelješac bridge] |726 KiB - In Croatian with short English summary .
* [http://www.korculainfo.com/blog/index.php/category/peljesac/peljesac-bridge/ Blog about Pelješac Bridge]
* [http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2007/04/11/feature-03 SET: BiH, Croatia seek agreement on proposed bridge] (11/04/2007)