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The 'Pelješac bridge' is a planned bridge intended to connect the Croatian peninsula of Pelješac with the Croatian mainland, spanning the bay between the two.
Because the Croatian mainland is intersected by a small strip of the coast around the town of Neum which is part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the bridge would also physically connect the southernmost part of Dalmatia with the rest of Croatia.

Contents

Characteristics

Construction

Criticisms

References

External links

Characteristics

The new Pelješac bridge will be a 2.300 meter long, 55 meter high beam and cable-stayed bridge, with a main span of 568 meters. It will be 20 meters wide, enough to accommodate 4 lanes of traffic. This span will be the second largest in Europe. The two pylons will be 115 meters above the road deck, 170 meters above sea level, and 240 meters above the seabed. The beam part of the bridge will be composed of 10 smaller pylons, with a span of 180 meters. The whole bridge will be the 18th longest in Europe.
It is as yet unknown whether or not the bridge will be part of the extension of the A1 motorway, currently connecting Zagreb with Split. Because the Croatian territory on the route from Neum to Dubrovnik is a fairly narrow strip of land, it is not impossible that the motorway would be built in the inland, in Herzegovina, with connections to the coast. Currently, the road from Ploče via the bridge towards Dubrovnik is planned to be a motorway. However, the road from Dubrovnik to Debeli Brijeg (border crossing with Montenegro) is not planned as a full-profile motorway but as a ''brza cesta'', an expressway, and even that route is not strictly defined.

Construction

Croatian minister of infrastructure Božidar Kalmeta said in May 2007 that preparations for the construction of the bridge were going according to plan, and that an initial tender was under preparation. Kalmeta added that the question of when the construction works will begin depends on whether a constructor would be selected in the first round.^[1]
On June 11, 2007, Croatian Roads announced a public tender for the construction of the bridge. On August 28, the list of bidders was released:

★ Konstruktor inženjering, Viadukt and Hidroelektra (from Croatia)

★ Dywidag (Germany), Strabag (Austria), Cimola (Italy), Eiffel (France)

★ Alpina Bau (from Salzburg, Austria)
Kalmeta confirmed construction works should start in Autumn 2007. The contractor is obliged to complete the project in four years. Construction costs are estimated at HRK 1.9 billion, nearly 260 million euro.^[2] Kalmeta's estimate about the building cost from late August was "under 300 million euros".
The construction will be financed by Croatian Roads and by loans by European investment banks.²

Criticisms

The idea that a large bridge should connect Pelješac with the mainland has caused concern among the ecological activists in Croatia, who opposed it because a potential damage to the sea life in the bay of Mali Ston, as well as the mariculture.
The idea was also opposed on various economical reasons - whether such a bridge is really necessary as opposed to making a different deal with Bosnia and Herzegovina, whether it is too expensive if built according to ecological demands, or whether it is best replaced with an undersea tunnel.
The construction of the bridge also caused problems with the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They opposed the building of the bridge, originally planned to be only 35 meters high, because it would have made it impossible for large ships to enter Neum. Although the harbour of Neum currently cannot be used for commercial traffic, the Bosnian government declared that in the future a new harbour might be built, and that the construction of the bridge would harm this ambition.
Prime minister Ivo Sanader persisted with the bridge idea, appeasing the BiH side by changing the design of the bridge to the current plans. The two sides agreed on the construction of the bridge in early December 2006. In June 2007, after the tender was published, the media reported renewed opposition from the Bosnia and Herzegovina State Border Commission.

References

1. Croatian Ministry of Sea, Tourism, Transport and Development - Kalmeta and Ljubic on Croatia's plan to build Peljesac bridge
2. Limun.hr Kalmeta: Bridge to Peljesac in 2011

External links

★ .

★ .

★ - In Croatian with short English summary .

★ Blog about Peljesac Bridge

★ SET: BiH, Croatia seek agreement on proposed bridge (11/04/2007)