Both tenders have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, with bid submission deadlines set for June 29.
The first section is the south-west D1 by-pass of Presov at nearly 8km long, including the construction of a 2km duel-tube road tunnel Presov and estimated to cost €443.4 million.
The second section is the 14.5km-long D1 Budimir to Bidovce stretch, with costs estimated at nearly €251.3 million.
Both sections are to be financed from the Operational Programme Integrated Infrastructure 2014-2020 plan, with the by-pass estimated to take four to complete and the Budimir section three years to build.
Slovakia’s D1 motorway runs from the western border with the Czech Republic to the eastern border with the Ukraine, a 100km frontier amid remote forested areas. The government has been building and renovating the route since 1985 when a cross-country route was planned in earnest. The D1 also forms part of the European routes E50, E58, E75 E571.
Meanwhile, controversy continues to swirl around a proposed D4 motorway bypass around the capital Bratislava and what tunnel option under the Little Carpathian Mountains is the best value.
World Highways reported in March that only 3km of the 33km D4 in southwestern Slovakia have been built, a short stretch from the Austrian border at Jarovce to the junction with the D2 motorway. It opened in 1998. Since then the government has been studying the best routes to extend the D4 to the D1 motorway between Bratislava and Senec in order to create a southern bypass of Bratislava.
Some experts think that it will be enough simply to link up the existing D1 motorway, which heads out of the capital in a northeast direction towards Trnava, with the D2 motorway heading south into Hungary.
Others want to see the D4 motorway continue under the hills north of Bratislava to join the D2 motorway north of the city, in the direction of the Czech Republic.
Controversy continues to swirl around Bratislava’s proposed D4 motorway bypass and what tunnel options under the Little Carpathian Mountains is the best value. The Little Carpathians – highest point around 770m -- are a protected environment area stretching around 100km westward from the end of the higher Carpathian Mountains.
Only 3km of the 33km D4 in southwestern Slovakia have been built, a short stretch from the Austrian border at Jarovce to the junction with the D2 motorway. It opened in 1998. Since then the government has been studying the best routes to extend the D4 to the D1 motorway between Bratislava and Senec in order to create a southern bypass of Bratislava.
Some experts think that it will be enough simply to link up the existing D1 motorway, which heads out of the capital in a northeast direction towards Trnava, with the D2 motorway heading south into Hungary.
Others want to see the D4 motorway continue under the hills north of Bratislava to join the D2 motorway north of the city, in the direction of the Czech Republic.
Slovakia’s Transport, Construction and Regional Development Ministry is leaning towards the shorter option that likely would exclude tunnels and cost around reach €1.3 billion. This option would be made up of sections of the proposed D4 and another major route, the R7.
