Skopje–Blace motorway: 10.5 km second phase launched to connect North Macedonia with Kosovo, Montenegro and Adriatic ports
Second phase of the Skopje–Blace motorway is 10.5 km, to be built by Granit AD and funded by an EBRD loan and WBIF grant; completion planned within four years.
North Macedonia launched construction today on the second phase of the Skopje–Blace motorway, a 10.5-kilometre stretch that the government says will strengthen the country’s role as a regional crossroads and open overland access toward at least two Adriatic ports.
Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Aleksandar Nikoloski underlined the project’s strategic purpose at the groundbreaking ceremony, linking the motorway to deeper connections with Kosovo and Montenegro and to coastal gateways such as Durrës and Bar.
Scope, builder and timeline
The new section will extend the route from Stenkovec beyond the 1.5 kilometres already completed. Domestic construction company Granit AD Skopje has been contracted to build the 10.5 km second phase, which is scheduled to be finished within four years. The route will include five tunnels, eight bridges, eleven underpasses, four galleries and nine retaining walls.
“When this Government was formed in 2024, the clear policy and vision of Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski was that Macedonia should become the crossroads of the Balkans, to use our unique position where two pan‑European corridors — Corridor VIII (East‑West) and Corridor X (North‑South) — intersect, and onto them Corridor XI and Corridor VI that lead from here are added, and in that way we can make the country the heart of the Balkans. Today we begin such a project that goes in that direction and only with such a clear policy and clear vision can this happen, because every government has different priorities; the priority of this Government is progress, cooperation, economic development and thus development of the state and the whole region,”
Nikoloski added that financing for the project combines international and domestic sources: an EBRD loan of €167.6 million, a grant of €30.82 million from the Western Balkans Investment Framework, budget funds from JPDP for expropriation, and grant funding for the designers Hill International and ADT Omega.
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski attended the ceremony, together with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, Deputy Prime Ministers Ljupcho Dimovski and Bekim Sali, several ministers and members of parliament, representatives of the project’s international financial partners and ambassadors.
Photo: MIA
