MINSK, 27 June (BelTA) – Belarus and Poland have plans to build a new road bridge across the Western Bug River at the checkpoint Domachevo-Slawatycze on the Belarus-Poland border, Transport and Communications Minister of Belarus Aleksei Avramenko told reporters following the fifth session of the Belarus-Poland working group on cooperation in transport on 27 June, BelTA has learned.
“I hope that Belarus and Poland will go through all organizational matters pretty fast and will embark on the construction project soon. In fact, we have done a great deal of preparatory work. Belarus and Poland are both interested in the prompt construction of this bridge,” Aleksei Avramenko said.
The project is to be implemented within about four years. The very construction of the bridge will take one year and nine months. Paperwork will take the rest of the time. This includes an environmental impact assessment report.
“We badly need this bridge, because the existing bridge on the Domachevo- Slawatycze checkpoint is in a very bad shape,” Poland's Minister of Infrastructure and Construction Andrzej Adamczyk said. “Therefore, the Belarusian government jointly with the government of Poland decided to build a new, safe bridge that will handle all kinds of vehicles,” he added.
Poland has earmarked 27 million zloty for this project. Belarus will contribute about the same amount of investment. “The project is financed 50/50. The Belarusian part of the project will be financed as part of the state investment program and our budgetary funds earmarked for construction and renovation of automobile roads,” Aleksei Avramenko said.
The bridge will be about 209 meters long. It will ensure round-the-clock and uninterrupted operation of the national highway P-94 Brest-Polish border (Domachevo) and the Domachevo checkpoint, which will consequently ease the burden on the Varshavsky Most and Kozlovichi checkpoints. Apart from that, this will allow lifting restrictions, including those related to transport, increasing the movement speed and giving a boost to the region's tourism industry, cargo transit and other areas.
During the meeting on 27 June the parties discussed cooperation in border infrastructure development, construction of railway bridges, upgrade of road bridges and roads on the Belarusian and Polish sides. “We have agreed to synchronize our road renovation plans. We have discussed air transport and road haulage, and exchanged views on a number of matters,” Aleksei Avramenko said. “We are closely interacting with our Polish partners regarding the system of permits. We have also discussed water transport. We have covered all the matters of the bilateral agenda and formalized our decisions in a protocol. We have also agreed to maintain contacts in the form of working groups and in other formats,” he said.
