With national co-financing, the total investment in the 25 projects amounts to €8bn.
The investment package under the EU Cohesion Policy involves Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Poland, Portugal and Romania. The projects cover a health, transport, research, environment and energy.
Commissioner for regional policy Corina Creţu said: “These 25 projects are as many examples of how the EU is working to improve everyday life for our citizens from better drinking water to faster rail transport and modern hospitals. In the current budget period, I have adopted 258 large infrastructure projects worth €32 billion of EU funds; they are, in a way, the ambassadors of Cohesion Policy and I'm proud of each and every one of them.”
Allocations include €1bn to help upgrade Bucharest's ring road by expanding several of its sections, doubling the lanes in each direction. It will also support the construction of a 51-km section of the southern part of the new Bucharest Orbital Motorway. Still in the Romanian capital, €97m of EU funds will finance works on the entire metro line 2, with new tracks and rolling stocks.
Almost €603m will support the protection and rehabilitation of the highly touristic area of the Black Sea coastline in the Constanța County. The project includes cliff consolidation works, replenishment of sand on the beaches, biodiversity preservation measures (artificial reefs and repopulation of marine species) as well as monitoring equipment.
Upgrades on the rail corridor between Prague and Pilsen will receive €76m and almost €75m is being invested in a road forming major link between the Czech D48 motorway and the Slovak D3 motorway.
In Jena, Thuringia, the Friedrich-Schiller-University's facilities will be given a makeover with almost €84m of EU funds. The project will finance the construction of two buildings: the university data centre and the faculty of mathematics and IT science, benefitting 18,000 students.
The EU has allocated €105m to finance upgrades on the southern section of the Budapest ring road, with reconstructed roads, bridges and new cycle paths.
More than €358m of EU funds will help extend the Circumetnea railway line in Catania, Sicily, with eight new stations and new rolling stock.
Almost €74m will provide Malta, Gozo and Comino islands with better drinking water, enhanced security of water supply and improved groundwater resource management. EU-funded works include an underground tunnel and the extension of water and wastewater distribution networks.
The Cohesion Policy will also finance the construction of a section of the S7 express road linking Warsaw to Grójec (€129m), a section of the A2 motorway between Warsaw's southern bypass and Mińsk Mazowiecki (more than €78m), a section of the S3 express road towards the Czech border in Lower Silesia (€105m) and a section of the Olsztyn bypass in Warmińsko-Mazurskie (€87m). The projects are all located on the Trans-European Transport Network.
Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk
