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The construction of the heaviest part of the new highway Corinth – Tripolis – Kalamata and Levkotros – Sparti which connects the biggest cities in the Peloponnese region was just finished. The total investment for the sixteen kilometers road intercept between Atineu and Levktro exceeded 110 million euro and includes two tunnels with a length of 1360 meters each, two bridges and seven lay-bys with a length of 244 meters. The road bed is of great importance because it gives the opportunity to the drivers to avoid the dangerous turns in the mountain areas of Peloponnese and it increases the level safety of the people traveling. The new road decreases the travel time from forty to ten minutes and the expectations are that the number of road traffic accidents will decrease.

“A very important project was successfully finished. We give the society a modern and safe (for the careful drivers) road, regardless of the geo – technical difficulties which the region had put before us,” said during the official opening of the road the Minister of transport and infrastructure Dimitris Repas. He reminded to the present journalists that the project was started in 1997 during the time of the government of Kostas Simitis, however it was stopped later. The minister promised that until the summer the southern part of the Tripolis – Atineu interception will be finished. It will also be sixteen kilometers long and keeping the same rhythm the entire highway will be fully ready by the end of 2011.

The traffic on the Athens – Thessaloniki highway in the interception at the Tembi passage will also be temporarily restored during the Easter holidays. Minister Repas announced that the permission for the traffic at the Tembi passage will be temporary – from the first until the eleventh of April in order to ease the traffic of the people traveling during the period of the holydays. After this the interception will be closed again for about three weeks during which the last completing repair works will be carried out. Specialists assured the public that the usage of the Tembi passage is completely safe and there is no risk of new land slides.

The road of the main traffic artery of the country which connects the two biggest cities in Greece (Athens and Thessaloniki) was closed in the middle of December last year. The reason for the closing of the passage was the tearing of hazardous land slides which destroyed a big part of the road covering. The repair works for the reinforcement of the slope in the region and the rehabilitation of the road continue for almost four months now. The initial appraisal of the specialists from the Ministry of transport and infrastructure was that the repairs will finish by the middle of January this year. Regarding this, however also many other accidents Minister Dimitris Repas stated: “We have a problem with the landslides in many places in Greece. This is a result of the many years of negligence of the road network of the country by the previous governments.” The minister promised that all cases will be carefully reviewed and the necessary actions will be taken.