Supervision Services for Construction of Highway E-80: Nis (Merosina) to Plocnik (Beloljin)

The Highway Nis-Merdare in the Republic of Serbia, also known as the “Peace Highway”, is considered an important step for peace and reconciliation in the Western Balkans. It is part of the Route 7 of the core indicative extension of TEN-T Corridor Orient / East Mediterranean, a priority highway according to the national strategy of the Republic of Serbia.

Once finished, this route will become the shortest link between the EU and the Western Balkans, boosting the economic cooperation and recovery and making the region more prosperous by delivering better connectivity between people

The overall scheme is in fact one of the flagship investment projects within the EU’s Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans, having received very significant financial support from all the European multilateral institutions (the EU, the EBRD, and the EIB, mainly).

The construction of the new highway will be implemented in three stages. The first stage comprises the construction of approximately 32.7 km of semi-motorway, from Merosina to Beloljin.

In this context, a Joint Venture led by IRD Engineering signed an EIB-funded contract that aimed at the provision of construction supervision services on behalf of the Employer, the Public Enterprise Koridori Srbije, for all the works contracts in the section Merosina – Beloljin, and assuming all the duties and obligations of the Engineer as defined in FIDIC Pink Book and FIDIC Yellow Book.

The semi-motorway will be constructed both on-line and off-line of the existing road, a single carriageway with a 60-100 km/h design speed, without any grade separation and passing through numerous urban centres. The project includes 5 grade-separated interchanges, 16 bridges, 8 overpasses/underpasses, 6 tunnels (with a total length of 2,670 m) and ancillary ITS systems.