SOFIA NORTHERN SPEED TANGENT

The Sofia Northern Speed Tangent (SNST) is a 2x3 motorway shortcutting the Sofia Ring Road north of the city. The SNST has a total length of 16.46 km. It requires the construction of five major interchanges and various bridges and structures as well as the relocation of several gas pipelines and high voltage electricity lines. The project is in line with the Sofia Municipality Development Plan and will connect three major motorways (previously financed by the Bank: Trakia, Lyulin and Hemus) to the new motorway from Sofia to Kalotina at the Serbian border. The project will be implemented by the Road Infrastructure Agency. The project is located on a Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) network and co-financed by the EU Cohesion Fund.

The new motorway sections will reduce congestion and traffic through the Sofia City centre and will improve urban mobility and safety. The project will increase traffic speeds and thus contribute to travel time and operating cost savings.

The motorway project falls under Annex I 7b of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive 2011/92/EU for which an EIA is mandatory. The Competent Authority approved the EIA (Decision Number 6-3/2011) which describes corrective measures to mitigate the residual environmental impacts. The nearest NATURA 2000 protected sites are; (i) Dolni Bogrov – Kazichene (BG0002004) locate at 1 km eastbound of the end of the project and the (ii) Chelopechene Fish-ponds (BG0002114) located at some 3 km north to the end of the project. The Competent Authority concluded that the project is not likely to exert a significant negative impact on natural habitats, populations and habitats of species subject to conservation.

The project has been procured by the Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA) and contracts have been awarded through international open tenders in accordance with the Directive 2004/18/EC.