April 2023

A 7.5 km section of Lot 1, Mezdra-Botevgrad expressway was put into operation between the villages of Skravena and Novachene. The construction works were executed by Geopat Lot 1 Consortium comprising Geostroy AD and Patstroy-92 AD, part of GEOTECHMIN GROUP.

During the official opening ceremony, the first car driven on the newly constructed track was a racing car made in Bulgaria. The drive was symbolic to demonstrate the high quality of the road pavement, otherwise allowing maximum speed limit of 90 km/h. ‘I would like to thank the builder for keeping our promise to open the road ahead of the Easter holiday period. We did our best to accommodate traffic during the construction works,’ said Minister Ivan Shishkov.

The event was attended by PhD Eng. Vladimir Vutov, Vice-President of Geotechmin and Executive Director of Geostroy, Mr Dominic Hamers, Executive Director of Geotechmin, Mrs Emilia Ilieva, Member of Geostroy’s Board of Directors and Executive Director of Geotrading, M.Eng. Aleksandar Velev, Executive Director of Patstroy-92. The Metropolitan Bishop of Lovech Gavriil performed a solemn water blessing service for the safe operation of the new road.

‘It is my great honour and pleasure as a citizen to celebrate the opening of one more new road section. Observe the restrictions, because our families expect us to arrive safe and sound,’ said M.Eng. Yordan Yonov, Deputy Executive Director of Geostroy.

The completed section is part of Lot 1 of the expressway and includes Novachene road junction, three bridges, two overpasses, engineering infrastructure and utility connections, public recreation areas. New street lighting, road markings, road restraint systems, noise screens and bat shielding devices were installed. Reinforced earth retaining walls were also constructed. The road has two lanes in each direction, relieving the traffic load and enabling fast transit to and from North-West Bulgaria.

The total length of Lot 1 road section is 19.3 km and the construction works on the project are continuing.