Q65: Athens – Karditsa in 2.5 hours – The timeline of the project and pending issues

With the Othryos tunnel in the background, the most important technical work of the E65, the inauguration of two sections of the road took place with which a single highway is created from Lamia to Kalambaka. This is a development that took more than 15 years to happen. “The E65 went through 40 waves, was tested in the financial crisis, it came to be a stub project (including the operation of only the Xiniada – Trikala section), with the southern section having serious technical problems and the northern section being in financial gap”, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at the opening ceremony.

“It is an important day for Central Greece, Thessaly, Western Macedonia and Epirus. We all know how important this road is, a decades-long dream,” added the prime minister. He estimated that the last section of the road axis, from Kalambaka to Egnatia (46 km long), will be delivered within the next two years, i.e. in 2026.

Both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Infrastructure, Christos Staikouras, emphasized the importance of community support for the completion of the project, which has the following financial (and managerial) originality: the central section, from Xinada to Trikala, was built under the contract concession with the Central Road, co-financed by the E.E.

The southern part was built as a public project, co-financed by the NSRF 2014-2020, while the northern part, from Trikala to Egnatia, is financed by the Recovery Fund. Sure OK. Staikouras he referred to the governments that played a role in the completion of the project, but also to the ministers, singling out the initiator of the project, George Souflia, Christos Spirtzis during whose days the southern section began, and Kostas Ah. Karamanlis, during whose days the northern began.

Of course, the joy of the opening does not preclude the fact that the specific project was accompanied by delays, poor planning and budget overruns. The Deputy Minister of Public Works, Nikos Tachiaos, thanked the manufacturer (TERNA) “because the project was delivered two months and two days before the contractual deadline”. Of course, this contractual date came about after two extensions and the southern section should have been delivered to traffic from the end of 2021.

Pending

Speaking at the opening ceremony, for his part, Mr president and managing director of TERNA Giorgos Peristeris referred to the expropriations still pending on the northern section of the E65, although the project was awarded in 2021 and was due to be delivered in the summer of 2024. “We will do what we can, circumventing our contractual rights, because the expropriations have not been completed “, he said. “We acquired many lands and leased them at our own expense in order to move forward, as we did on the Ionian Road. In Ionia, the road was delivered in 2018 and the expropriations were judicially completed in 2020,” he said. But he was more optimistic about the delivery of the last part of the road. “We hope that next year the road will be completed and will be connected to Egnatia”, he said.

With the addition of the sections inaugurated today, the Athens – Karditsa route is reduced to 2.5 hours and Athens Trikala to 3 hours. “E65 will be a development fuse for the region. It will allow Athenians to travel more easily in the region. We have to support these tested areas and prefer them for the Easter days”, said Mr. Tachiaos.