The bypass of Vlora is a significant strategic investment in the country’s infrastructure, worth 35 million Euros. The length of this road is 29 km and starts from the roundabout at the end of the highway Levan – Vlora.

Along with the Transbalkan highway, which connects the highway with the city, as well as the new road of Vlora River, this city becomes a key focus of infrastructure investment, with significant impact on the economy of the country.

Prime Minister Rama was today in Vlora to inspect this major work funded by EIB, EBRD and the IPA, the completion of which will create optimal conditions for the use of new tourist zone.

Minister of Transports and Infrastructure Edmond Haxhinasto said that this important project will completely change the traffic flow which up to this day has been very heavy across the area, and will relieve the pressure on the roads of tourist destinations such as Rradhime, Orikum, etc. A significant relief will have also the road link between the villages and the city of Vlora.

“The previous traffic flow in the city used to create uncomfortable situations and discouraged many visitors to come. This issue will be part of our structures and our plans for the north-south road. It will be a completely different situation for the entire coastal tourist area, which will be accessible in a much shorter time, less than two hours.”

The Prime Minister said that these three key strategic investments will completely change the tourist and economic configuration of the country, making tourist areas easily accessible, as well as creating new economic spaces. Additionally, the Prime Minister said that this will be a spectacular road both in terms of environment and of the view.

“With the Transbalkan highway on one side and the bypass of Vlora on the other, and also with the new road of Vlora River, Vlora will receive the highest volume of investments concentrated in the territory, in a national level.

In fact, these three strategic investments will change completely the tourist and economic configuration, because they will open economic and tourist spaces, and obviously as the minister said, will transform completely the traffic flow. In addition, we create optimal conditions for the city and the entire tourist zone, we create also an opportunity to cope with en even bigger influx expected by the growth of tourism, but also a much lower more pressure on settlements.

This is the end of an investment, which is another reason for us to be happy because it is a project made with great care. It was an existing project that was revised from the environmental standpoint by a team of Italian and Albanian experts. From and environmental and panoramic standpoint, this road will be a spectacular one.”

 

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Other important works in Vlora are being carried out to expand the beach line by 2 km in length along the coastline. Currently, works are being carried out for the stratification of the internal structure and for sanding the beach.

Prime Minister Edi Rama visited today this site. The area of intervention extends from the port of Vlora up near the tunnel in the Cold Water area. This area is heavily congested during the summer season. The project will improve the existing beach and will add new space.

The Prime Minister held an interesting meeting with participants in competition “Albania Open 2015”, an annual event of the aviation, which will bring in Albania pilots from different countries. Alketa Islami, President of the “Albania Open” briefed the Prime Minister on the fact that Albania will host in 2017 the aviation World Cup.

According to the Prime Minister this is a strategic investment that transforms not only the coastline of Vlora in one of the most beautiful coast lines of the Mediterranean, but also the entire platform for tourism. The World Flight Championship, the Prime Minister said, will be an extraordinary moment to promote Vlora and tourism in Albania.

“The beach area is being extended. An agreement for funding the remaining part will be entered in a few days with the European Commission. Actually, the entire site is complete because we have had three different parts. One of them concerns the sand, which has been analyzed in a laboratory in Italy, because residents of Vlora were concerned if that was the right sand. The outcome was that this sand is of excellent quality. Designers have waited for the whole cycle of this natural stratification because they didn’t want to use gravel to cover the area, in order to avoid affecting its internal structure. The stratification will be made according to an optimal technique with sandbags that will be put in the lower part, thus ensuring the solidity and the naturalness of this extraordinary platform in comparison to what the surface used to be.

On the other side, we will continue with the part concerning infrastructure and the transformation of the promenade, which will be the longest of the coastline. The third part concerns the pines, which have been ordered – they should have been ordered a year ago. As it was designed, adult pines will be planted along this coastline.

Since Vlora has been totally abandoned for years, and the inability to absorb tourism has created a gap, impatience has been and remains huge, and we can sympathize with this, but works need their time in order to be performed with optimal standards. I am convinced that the completion of works will completely soothe the soul of this city, forgotten for so long, abandoned and destroyed by abandonment and lack of financial support by the government.

We were right before on the new road of the Vlora Bypass. With the Bypass, the Transbalkan highway that connects the highway with the city and the Vlora road river, which has been already designed and has received financial support from a foreign financial institution, and on which the contract is expected to be signed, I believe that in September we will have, along with the coastline, the largest volume of investments concentrated in this territory in a national level.

Obviously, we are making a major strategic investment in the first period of government, because it is practically the transformation of the platform for tourism, of which Vlora is its main point of gravity.

In 2017 you will see a totally different thing, and it will be an extraordinary moment to use this world championship to promote Vlora. We said that this will be one of the most beautiful coast lines of the Mediterranean and we will make it so.”

Alket Islami conveyed to the Prime Minister the impressions he had during the four-day stay in the area, on how work is done here and how society is moving. “This is the first test on this sand, which is a real one” – Islami said while waiting with other contestants to fly over the beach. The Prime Minister took this occasion to exchange jokes with some workers who were sanding the beach. “We sent the sand in a laboratory in Venice and the outcome was that it was of optimal quality”. One of the workers replied: “We know this because we work here. This is 100% sand.” “Yes”, said the Prime Minister, “we know this. But tell those with over-gelled hair who attack on Facebook”.