Pan-European Corridor VIII

The Pan-European Transport Corridor VIII is a transport corridor from Albania via Macedonia to Bulgaria. Pan-European transport corridors are major international traffic arteries, which will help each rail and road, sometimes combined, for economic exchange of goods and recovery in Eastern Europe. The corridor is a major economic thoroughfare in Albania and Bulgaria.

The Pan-European Transport Corridor VIII - usually referred to in Albania only as a corridor VIII - connects as east-west axis in the southern Balkans, the Albanian Adriatic ports and the Black Sea and is considered as a combined transport axis. Bulgaria and Macedonia should thus will have greater access to the west. Albania as well as the other countries hope to gain an economic boom.

A continuous rail link is not realistic in the near future. Although Albania is a railway line to the Lake Ohrid. However, this is in poor condition, the trains run only once a day, and takes account of the low speed for several hours. In Macedonia there is no east-west connection. In the direction of Albania, the Trains run to Kičevo, there is no connection to Bulgaria. In 1910, the current Bulgarian- Macedonian border town Gjueschewo was connected to the Bulgarian railway system.

History and status of the expansion

Albania

The entire route of the corridor in Albania is in like new condition. The national roads follow the majority of the ancient Roman road Via Egnatia and were extended or renewed in the 21st century. In contrast, the Railroads of Hekurudha Shqiptare are in poor condition. The cars are old and run only one to three times daily; on the route between Librazhd and Pogradec, passenger services were discontinued altogether.

From the port of Durres, where the traffic corridor VIII begins, the SH 4 runs along the bay of Durrës as developed highway through the tourist town Golem after Kavaja, travels around this city and takes in Rrogozhina the portion of Vlora on that consistently - with the exception of the still not built city of Fier bypass - is expanded as a motorway. This section is also marked as SH 4 between Rrogozhina and Fier. From Fier to Vlora it is designated as SH 8. In Rrogozhina the Corridor VIII continues as SH 7 over Peqin in the industrial city of Elbasan and follows the river Shkumbin to pass Qafë Thana where the corridor as SH 9 leads to the Macedonian border, near the Lake Ohrid. The entire route of Rrogozhina to Macedonia is expanded into a mint, but often winding road.

Also the ports of Durres and Vlora were modernized and expanded. Plans to extend the route Rrogozhina Macedonia to a highway do not exist currently.

Macedonia

In the axis of the corridor which partially already existent, but partly also only planned Macedonian motorways M2 and M3 are included. The northern bypass the capital Skopje on 22 June 2009 approved the construction of a motorway between Gostivar and the Albanian border near Struga for traffic is still in the planning stage, the current road is already outdated; old bridges and crumbling cliffs pose serious risks and dangers. Between Kumanovo and the border with Bulgaria a highway is planned.

For the entire corridor also a continuous rail link is planned, with 1897 plans were drawn up for the route Skopje -Sofia in the year. Since 2006, the project is based in Macedonia. The detailed planning of the 63 km long new railway line from Kičevo to the Albanian border on Lake Ohrid was announced in December 2012. The design contract is to be performed after 24 months. In September 2012, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, that the government is expected to begin under the leadership of VMRO -DPMNE in 2013 with the expansion work on a highway on the route Gostivar - Kičevo.

On 12 November 2013, the Macedonian government signed with the Chinese Sinohydro Corporation Limited, an agreement for the construction of highways Skopje Stip and Kičevo -Ohrid. The latter is part of the Pan-European Corridor VIII Work on the two routes are expected to begin in early 2014 and cost a total of 580 million euros. The highways are two lanes in each direction and a side strip include, in the middle separated by a green strip. The highway Kičevo -Ohrid will have a length of 56.7 kilometers and a top speed of 120 km / hr.

Bulgaria

In Bulgaria, Thrace motorway, connecting Burgas to Sofia on the total length of 360 km was completed in August 2013. Your Next course, the Awtomagistrala Lyulin Sofia to Pernik, was opened in the spring of 2011. In project work is the expansion of the two-lane road from Kyustendil Pernik on the Macedonian border at the border crossing Gjueschewo.

The railway line from the Macedonian border through Kyustendil to Radomir is in poor condition and is not electrified, the speed limit is in many parts of only 25 km / h From there on Sofia and Plovdiv to Varna route is electrified and is already completed for a top speed of 160 km / hr. The construction of the sections from Plovdiv to Burgas and Plovdiv to Septemwri began in 2011 and should be completed by the end of 2013 and 2015. The plans for the modernization of the section of Radomir after Gjueschewo are also completed, and the construction is scheduled to begin in 2014. After the modernization of the whole route between the Black Sea and the Macedonian border to allow a maximum speed of 160 km / hr.

Film

2008, the Bulgarian director Boris Despodow presented at the Berlinale documentary Corridor # 8 Background was a trip that he wanted to organize from Sofia to Tirana, but this appeared to be impossible. Boris Despodow thereupon passed, the distance from Burgas to Durres and filmed the everyday lives of people living along this route.