Progress finally made regarding “Peace Highway”: Location requirements issued for section from Merosina to Plocnik

There is finally progress on the so-called Peace Highway, or officially the E-80 Nis-Merdare highway, at least when it comes to issuing the permits necessary for its construction. Namely, the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, acting upon the coordinated request of the Corridor of Serbia and the Roads of Serbia, has issued location requirements for the phased construction of the E-80 highway, from the Merosina interchange to the settlement of Plocnik, or for section 3 from km 14+310.15 to km 27+213.30 (on the left axis) and from km 14+310.15 to km 27+209.21 (on the right axis).

These location requirements, as stated, are required for the development of a conceptual design, a design for a building permit and a design for execution, in accordance with the Spatial Plan for the Special Purpose Area of the E-80 Highway Infrastructure Corridor, Nis–Merdare Section.

Section 3 itself is 12.8 km long and represents the longest section, passing through the construction area of Prokuplje, and as indicated, is characterized by very complex spatial conditions. The section touches the urban fabric of Prokuplje from the north and coincides with the corridor of the planned bypass around Prokuplje. Due to the configuration of the terrain, it is designed for a speed of 100 km/h. Several bridge structures and tunnels are planned on this section. After exiting the tunnel in the northwestern part of Prokuplje, the corridor returns to the Toplica River Valley. The section includes the planned Prokuplje East (km 17+000) and Prokuplje West (km 23+815) interchanges.

On the approximately 13-kilometer-long section, two official toll booths are planned - Prokuplje West and Prokuplje East.

The construction of two tunnel tubes each, the Bozurna and Racunkovo Brdo tunnels, as well as cross-connections for pedestrians, cross-connections for vehicles and niches, is also planned.

Four power station facilities are also planned to house power and telecommunications equipment - two next to the Racunkovo Brdo tunnel and two next to the Bozurna tunnel.

The Merosina-Beloljin section is part of the E-80 Nis-Merdare highway and represents route 7 within the basic SEETO network, a priority highway according to the national strategy of the Republic of Serbia and the SEETO basic (high priority) network. With the implementation of this project, the highway on Route 7 would connect the Black Sea and the Adriatic Sea, providing an optimal road connection between Bulgaria, Serbia and Albania.

The corridor of the planned E-80 highway is divided into two sectors with a total of eight sections. The first sector extends from the Merosina interchange (km 0+000) on the E-75 highway to Plocnik (km 39+419) with five sections, while the second sector extends from Plocnik (km 39+419) to the administrative crossing Merdare (km 76+333) and has three sections.

By the way, the current division of the highway route into sections is, as pointed out, conditional and defined only for the purposes of developing this plan. Due to the configuration of the terrain, a large number of different highway structures are planned for each section, such as bridges, tunnels, overpasses, underpasses and culverts.

The spatial plan determines the location of eight interchanges (one existing and seven planned): Merosina, Merosina East, Prokuplje East, Prokuplje West, Beloljin, Kursumlija and Rudare and Merdare.

It is planned that this highway will have two physically separated carriageways, with at least two traffic lanes for each carriageway, with each traffic lane having a width of at least 3.75 m, and that, depending on the terrain configuration (calculated speed), the width of the traffic lane may be reduced to 3.50 m. It is also planned that each carriageway will have a separate lane 2.5 m wide for emergency stopping of vehicles.

The planned speed of vehicles on this highway is up to 130 km/h, and depending on the terrain configuration, the minimum speed should be 100 km/h.

A Spatial Plan for the Special Purpose Area of this infrastructure corridor was adopted for the construction of the E-80 Nis-Merdare highway.

Ministarstvo građevinarstva, saobraćaja i infrastrukture Republike Srbije

JP Putevi Srbije Beograd

Koridori Srbije d.o.o. Beograd

Ministry of Construction Transport and Infrastructure

Roads of Serbia

Corridors of Serbia

Peace Highway

Niš Merdare highway

highway section from Merošina to Pločnik