Audit finds a third of asphalt missing on part of Sofia Northern speed tangent

An audit of a stretch of Sofia's Northern Speed Tangent Tuesday found that the asphalt layer is 30% thinner than the design specification, said Regional Development Minister Ivan Shishkov. He attended the audit during which experts took two samples from the road for tests. Holding the sample for the reporters to see, the Minister said: "What you see is 14 cm. It is supposed to be 20 cm."

More samples will be taken from a bridge on the Sofia Northern Speed Tangent, as experts will also examine the strength of the steel construction.

The Minister said that the examined stretch of the road will have to be overhauled much earlier than planned - at the expense of the State.

He expained that the northern speed tangent is past the warranty period but the bridge is still covered by the warranty.

The samples will undergo more tests at the Construction Research Institute and the Institute of Roads and Bridges with the Road Infrastructure Agency, and results are due within two weeks.

The 17-km Sofia Northern Speed Tangent was built on BGN 220 million from the EU-backed Operational Programme Regional Development 2007-2013. A 13-km section of it was commissioned on December 30, 2015, by then Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and the rest was opened to traffic on April 28, 2016 - two months ahead of schedule.

The road was built by a consortium, HPVS-SST, including Vodstroy 98, Hydrostroy AD, Patni Stroezhi Veliko Tarnovo AD, Patengeneringstroy AD and Patstroy Burgas. The value of the design and construction contract is BGN 180 million including VAT. The construction supervision was carried out by SJC Technos - SJC Bulgaria, which includes SJC Bulgaria Ltd. and SJC Technos S.A., Spain. Their contract is for BGN 882,000 including VAT.

The Sofia Northern Speed Tangent is a 2x3 motorway shortcutting the Sofia Ring Road north of the city. It has a total length of 16.46 km. The project included 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 was in line with the Sofia Municipality Development Plan and connects three major motorways (Trakia, Lyulin and Hemus) to the new motorway (Europe) from Sofia to Kalotina at the Serbian border. The northern speed tangent is located on a Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) network.