Croatia to Start Building Adriatic Bridge in 2016

Croatia on Wednesday announced that plans to build a long-awaited bridge over the Adriatic sea, connecting the Peljesac peninsula to the mainland, will get underway next year.

An idea dating back to the late 1990s, the 2.4-km-long bridge should connect up two parts of Croatia divided by a 14-km stretch of territory belonging to Bosnia.

Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said the construction of the bridge would secure the easier and safer transport of people and goods within Croatia.

"Above all... there is this desire for Croatia to merge so that one no longer has to travel to and from Dubrovnik through the territory of another state," he added.

The tourist resort and port city of Dubrovnik, the "pearl" of the Adriatic, is currently divided from the rest of Croatia, hindering access to it by land.

Transport Minister Sinisa Hajdas Doncic said the tender for construction will be announced by the end of the year, while construction will most probably start in the spring of 2016.

The total cost of the project will be 380 million euro, while the bridge itself will cost around 206 million euro, Hajdas Doncic stated.

He said that Croatia could potentially get up to 85 per cent co-financing from EU funds, while construction will last from 2.5 to three years.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has expressed dissatisfaction with Peljesac bridge project, claiming that the bridge's dimensions would block maritime access to its port town of Neum.