Thumane-Kashar Road to be opened for traffic on June 30

Six Road Projects under Implementation

Albania is building a total of six road segments of the EU's trans-European transport network (TEN-T), five of which are in the main network of European corridors and one is a

branch with the main network. The Transport Community that coordinates policies and investments in projects related to important European infrastructure analyzed that during 2023 Albania has 137.7 km of work in

progress (132.88 km in the Main Network and 4.83 km in the comprehensive network). Official data from the Transport Community refer to the value of network projects in the main

network at Euro 1,058,540,000. Last year, four new projects moved to the "in progress" status, three of which were in the Ionian-Adriatic Corridor and 1 in Corridor-8.

Section four is being worked on in the Adriatic-Ionian Corridor: Thumane - Kashar, and Lekaj - Konjat - Fier. While in Corridor 8, work is being implemented on the construction of the Elbasan

- Përrenjas road. The deadlines for their completion start from this year until 2027.

In Albania, there are two road corridors and railways that are part of the core network of the European Union.

Corridor VIII includes the highway and the railway line. Both depart on the Italian Adriatic coast in Bari or Brindisi, with a ferry crossing to Durrës in Albania. From there the roads cross the

southern Balkans to Bulgaria and from there to Varna, on the Bulgarian coast of the Black Sea.

The road corridor follows the route: Tirana-Durrës-Vlora-Elbasan-Skopje-Pernik-Sofia-Plovdiv- Burgas-Varna. Although still incomplete, it broadly parallels the railway line.

The Adriatic-Ionian highway is a highway under construction along the western coast of the Adriatic and the Ionian Sea. This long road crosses the western part of the Balkan peninsula. It is

planned that the distance will be realized as a continuous highway. It starts in Trieste (Italy) and passes first through Slovenia to Rijeka in Croatia. In the vicinity of

Dubrovnik, the Adriatic-Ion Highway will pass through Bosnia-Herzegovina in Trebinje to Montenegro.

There it will continue through Podgorica and pass from the northern part to Lake Shkodra in Albania and further to Durrës in the direction of Greece. In Greece, this highway will pass through Ioannina and Patra with the final point in Kallamata. This corridor for Croatia, Montenegro, and Albania is very important but has little support from the European Union. The countries have undertaken internal initiatives to enable the collection of capital for the realization of this international project.