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New Highway Section Linking Bratislava and Zilina Opened
Monday 31 May 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Povazska Bystrica, May 31 (TASR) - As much as 70 percent of the traffic on the I/61 road through Povazka Bystrica (Trencin region) will be diverted as of Monday to the newly opened Sverepec-Vrtizer section of the D1 motorway (Trencin and Zilina region).
An almost ten-kilometre-long section with a flyover above Povazska Bystrica was ceremonially opened on Sunday evening by Prime Minister Robert Fico, other representatives of the Slovak Government, and representatives of the National Highway Company (NDS), the European Commission in Slovakia and the contractors.
"This construction could have been ready five years ago, but it didn't happen for various reasons. I want to congratulate Povazska Bystrica especially, because this will help it a lot," said Fico, adding that the delay was caused by non-governmental organisations, land speculators and the previous government.
"This is an extraordinarily important construction in terms of architecture and technology, but also because the whole section between Bratislava and Zilina is linked by a motorway at last," said NDS general director Igor Choma.
The construction work on the section was launched in 2008 and the overall costs reached €379 million. Almost €225 million came from EU Funds. Thanks to the new section, the journey from Zilina to Bratislava will be half an hour shorter. The flyover is lit up at night and, according to Transport Minister Lubomir Vazny, has a good chance of becoming the new dominant feature of the town.
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