Overpass on Sentandrejski road closed for traffic - completion of Novi Sad's bypass prior to 2011

The overpass on Sentandrejski road is closed for traffic until further notice because it is damaged. The coordinator of the project for construction of Novi Sad's bypass, Dragan Mijović from Energoprojekt - Niskogradnja, told Dnevnik that the overpass was still being surveyed and that its destiny would be known the next week.

According to him, the project for construction of the highway in the zone of Novi Sad anticipates construction of new overpass on Sentandrejski road because the existing one does not satisfy the needs of the projected traffic flow beneath it. Namely, there are, currently, two highway lanes underneath it and the construction of Novi Sad's bypass includes development of additional two service junctions beneath it.

The project for construction of the bypass anticipates tearing down of the existing Sentandrejski bridge and construction of new one in the same location. The new bridge will be longer (100 meters) and wider (13 meters). The existing highway in that location will be used as a service junction, and the new one 3.5 km long will be built east of that location. Complete project includes construction of two highway lanes and two accompanying junctions about 10 km long and 15 bridges whose spans will range between 15 and 110 meters. There will be three new bridges across the railway, each of which will be 115 meters long (two for highway and one for service junction). Construction of cloverleaf interchanges is necessary in the zone of these bridges in order for the future traffic link to Novi Sad, so-called branch Sever, to be built. Reconstruction of all existing bridges is in the pipeline.

Construction of Novi Sad's bypass commenced in August 2006, the agreed deadline for construction was two years, which means that it expired long time ago. In the meantime, building company Intermost, a part of French company Vinchi that won on the tender together with Energoprojekt - Niskogradnja, gave up the project and left all building sites in Serbia. That was one of the reasons for discontinuation of construction because the solution was sought for continuation of works in the middle of last year's building season. It was agreed that the works be carried out by Energoprojekt - Niskogradnja, and Intercoop was hired as subcontractor instead of Intermost.

Installations that block the works on construction of the bypass on three sections about 1.5 km long represent the the biggest problem. If the investor, public company Putevi Srbije, and the city fail to find the solution to this problem soon, we can not hope for the construction of the bypass to be finished in the near future. Mijović told Dnevnik that the works would not be finished before the end of the year.