The government has not given up on the construction of the Verige bridge that will connect the two sides of the Bay of Kotor, stated the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs. As CdM learns, serious international investors are interested in this project, among them are Azerbaijanis and Chinese. It is estimated that the project is worth about 150 million euros.
As CdM was told by the Traffic and Maritime Affairs, in 2017 a Preliminary Design was prepared for the bridge, 65 meters high, with access roads and bypass Tivat. The designer was Tempusprojekt from Zagreb.
With the aforementioned changes in bridge design solutions, the proposals, suggestions and recommendations from the Study of the Visual Impact of Verige Bridge in the Bay of Kotor would be fully respected. A feasibility study for the construction of the Verige bridge across the Boka Bay with access roads was also done, carried out by Omega consult - project management Ljubljana and CEED - Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development Podgorica. The Environmental Protection Study of the passage through the Boka Bay was also done.
As explained in Osman Nurkovic's department, the provisions of the Spatial Plan for the Special Purpose of the Coastal Area define the obligation to create special so-called HIA studies for all major facilities, and so for the bridge over the Boka Bay. The commitment to make the Preliminary Solution and the HIA study completed before the realization of the project was defined and the same to be presented to UNESCO.
Also, the provisions of the Spatial Plan of the Special Purpose of the Coastal Area and the workshops that were held in connection with the preparation of the HIA study of that plan determined to re-examine the new location of the transit through Boka Bay with the given variant solutions, and after the realization of these obligations, further consideration of the optimal conditions of understanding this capital project will be implemented.
"In 1999, the Government, or the then Directorate for the Construction of Highways in Montenegro, announced an International Competition for the Selection of the Location and the Ideal Solution for crossing over the Boka Bay, where the first place was awarded to POINTING Engineering Bureau in Maribor. Later, the design of the Main Project and the Technical Project was entrusted to GRADIS NG, whose work was completed in 2003, also from Maribor. During 2009, the Visual Impact Study of Verige Bridge was completed at the UNESCO Natural and Cultural-Historical Region of Kotor, aimed at visualizing and evaluating from the independent position the Verige bridge and connecting traffic facilities, which are planned at approx. 2.5 km from the protected natural and cultural region of Kotor," the Ministry claims.
Preliminary design
They further clarify that the Study was prepared following the instruction from the Ministry of Spatial Planning and Environmental Protection, based on the 2008 UNESCO Mission Report, stating that the proposed bridge "is not a threat to the UNESCO World Heritage Site", with a proposal for drawing up the Study on the visual impact of the current proposal of the bridge, taking into account the "exceptional universal value" of this property and its landscape within the entire territory of Boka Bay, including the World Heritage Site and its surroundings.
"The study was done by the Institute for Urban Planning and Regional Planning from the University of Aachen-Germany, in cooperation with the Ministry of Spatial Planning and Environmental Protection and GTZ," the Ministry said.
As they add, Monteput assumed certain obligations under the recommendations from the mentioned Study, which refer to additional technical checks of the project, reconsidering the tunnel variant of the passage, checking the possible correction of the height of the bridge, moving the toll station and possible revision of the route by tunnel solutions in the area of Bijela and Opatovo.
"For the verification of a possible tunnel solution for the crossing of the bay, the technical parameters have been issued by the competent Ministry on the basis of which the Design Task was prepared, which envisages the elaboration of the Preliminary Design of the tunnel passage and the previous Feasibility Study for the construction in order to verify the general concept of the tunnel crossing of the bay as well as verification of the traffic- technical and economic conditions of justification in accordance with EU norms and technical standards for design and construction of tunnels for the speed of the high speed road. The preliminary solution of the tunnel passage and the previous Study of the justification of construction proved that the variant of the crossing of the Bay with a tunnel is more unfavorable from the spatial-urban, technical, economic, traffic-technical, ecological, functional and security aspects, "the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs said to CdM.
Text by Miraš Dušević, on February 22nd, 2019, read more at CdM
