The first inaguration of the year, for the “Aktio-Amvrakia” road axis, was cut today at noon by the Prime Minister and the political leadership of the Ministry of Infrastructure, the last mile of the highway that will connect the Ionian Road, with the Aktion Airport, the port of Igoumenitsa and the Vonitsa-Lefkada axis.
With the completion of the project, it is estimated that drivers will cross the Athens-Lefkada route 45 minutes earlier, shortening the journey to the Ionian island to just 3 hours and 20 minutes, while journeys to Preveza and other destinations will also be reduced.
“Aktio Amvrakia”, with a total length of 49.5 kilometers, started as one of the problematic projects that have haunted the completion of important infrastructures in Greece as it is among the road construction projects that required multiple contracts and different technical solutions to deal with the obstacles and difficulties.
The project was auctioned sixteen years ago and was broken into four contracts, which were signed at deep discounts in 2010.
Archaeologists just discovered an ancient Greek temple filled with gold & jewels
It took a full ten years for the project to get on track, facing an avalanche of problems such as landslides due to the geomorphology of the soil, non-existent expropriations and serious sustainability issues of the contractors.
The Aktio-Ambrakia highway has characteristics of a closed highway with 2 plus 2 lanes per traffic flow and junctions.
The project is implemented with funding from the EU funding for the period 2014-2020, Ministry of Infrastructure’s Operational Program.