The much-discussed Corridor VIII project, described as the vital artery that will connect the Adriatic with the Black Sea, is today facing a crisis of identity and stability that threatens to turn it into another construction site without a deadline.
At the forefront is the decision to relocate the Port of Durres.
While the Albanian government is implementing a contract to turn the Port of Durres into a yacht port, on the other hand, many delays have been created to build the new port of Porto Romano.
The project to transform the Port of Durres into a yacht marina, officially known as "Durrës Yachts & Marina", is one of the most complex contracts.
The contract was signed between the Albanian state and the company "Eagle Hills Real Estate Development", a private investment and real estate development company based in Abu Dhabi, owned by Mohamed Alabbar.
The project extends over approximately 450 hectares of existing port land.
While the yacht project in the old port is moving at a rapid pace of sales, the New Port in Porto Romano has been stuck in tender procedures that have not been able to select a winner for two years.
In this way, Corridor VIII is at risk of "death", as experts list many errors in the structure and segments of the road.
The project for Corridor VIII must be completely changed
Experts in the field are concerned that attempting to build the road on eroded slopes is not only costly, but also dangerous to the lives of future travelers.
They said that the existing project, which is based on filling and digging slopes, already destabilized by erosion, should be canceled and this segment should be redesigned from scratch, using viaducts, which are high bridges.
This method, according to them, would allow the road to pass this problematic area without further affecting the riverbed and without risking further collapse of the mountain.
"We cannot fight nature when we have injured it so badly. Every penny thrown into the current retaining walls is money thrown into the river. A radical change of the project is needed," said the source at the ARRSH.
Experts call for immediate intervention by environmental institutions and the Ministry of Infrastructure to stop this disaster before the damage becomes irreversible.
Costly and unnecessary diversions of Corridor VIII
Corridor VIII has a long and recently entangled history with projects and studies that seem more like they are sabotaging the project.
When Corridor VIII was reclassified as a European Core Transport Network three years ago, the Albanian government updated the project, moving the last segment on Albanian territory, from the Bushtricë bridge in Qukës to exit near the gorge called "Skënderbeg's Ladder" on the border with North Macedonia, to a completely new route, 10 kilometers long.
The new trail passes at an altitude of almost 900 meters in the Meniku Mountains towards the border with North Macedonia, making maintenance very difficult after its completion, while the other variants pass at an altitude of about 600 meters.
Professor Kaba said that the new route, in addition to being costly, unnecessarily lengthens the Corridor. The variant agreed upon with the Macedonian side, as it passes through difficult terrain from Albania, into North Macedonia, makes a rather long detour to return to Qafë-Thane.
Professor Kaba also said that a big mistake was made in the Elbasan By Pass project, which had many tunnel-free and low-cost variants, but the government has found an absurd solution with a 2-kilometer tunnel, which increases costs not only during construction but also in maintenance.
There is also a misconception that the axes should be completed first. Building the segments after Elbasan without first building the Tirana and Elbasan bypasses has no value.
Road infrastructure experts are quite concerned about what is really happening in road investments./monitor
