Will there be a tunnel under Shipka peak?

For every Bulgarian Shipka is a symbol of the heroic battles under the peak during the Russian-Turkish war in 1878, which led to Bulgaria’s liberation from Ottoman rule.

About a decade later- in 1897- begins another battel for the inhabitants on either side of Stara Planina (Stara Mountain) in Gabrovo and Kazanlak – building a tunnel under the peak, which would connect the two Bulgarias – the Kingdom and Eastern Rumelia. This is when the story, which is still ongoing, with the tunnelling there begins.

The disputes during all these years revolve mostly around the best spot to build, lobbying by the strong of the day for one development project or another, and securing funding. Today, the only passing through Stara Planina is along Hemus Highway, and the tunnels were built back during Todor Zhivkov’s communist rule, so he could reach his hometown of Pravets faster.

After the shift to democracy the disagreements over where to build a tunnel under Stara Planina begin. The options are under Petrohan, Hainboaz and Shipka. Although a tunnel under Shipka absits drawbacks - it passes through the highest pass in Stara Planina and is away from the European corridor No 9, which should secure a fast rout on the East track to the Finish capital Helsinki to the North and reach the Greek port of Alexandropoulos to the South – this project is championed during GERB’s governments, after Tomislav Donchev becomes Deputy Prime Minister for euro funds. His birthplace is Gabrovo and before entering national politics, he was the mayor of the city.

Thus, in the eleventh hour, the project is approved for Euro funding during the first programming period 2007-2013 – even though it was not originally in the program.

Its development was split in two stages: construction of a passage around Gabrovo and digging a tunnel.

Difficult construction

The construction of the passage bypassing Gabrovo had a difficult beginning with complaints by environmental organizations and local people, which postponed the process. The environmentalists were opposed because the route passed through protected areas part of Natura 2000, which the locals – that the road is passed literally under their windows. At the end of the day, the court ruled in favor of the state and development was renewed.

Even with delay the first stage of the project concluded successfully during the last programming period 2014-2020. The passage around Gabrovo (23 km) was completed. The developer was the consortium PSVT and they did it for 93 million leva. The consortium comprises the companies Hidrostroy AD, Road Construction – Veliko Tarnovo AD, and Patengeneeringstroy – T.

Because of the delayed construction the European Commission submitted a formal request to Bulgaria to recover 11 million leva. Bulgaria managed to justify the postponement and there was no recovery.

In the current programming period 2021-2027 the tunnel under Shipka was included as a top priority in the Operational Programme "Transport Connectivity". Public officials were quick to announce the public procurement procedures for choosing developers in 2020. The aim was for construction to begin immediately after Brussels approves the program.

Project on blocks

The public procurement procedure was announced in 2018, while nearly three years later the price bids were open. This was in March 2021 – just before Boyko Borissov’s government fell.

The stakes as to who will win the procurement are apparently high. During the first caretaker government, which the president appointed in 2021, the winner was announced to be the consortium which realized the road around Gabrovo – Consortium PSVT with Hidrostroy AD, Road Construction – Veliko Tarnovo AD, and Patengeneeringstroy – T and a bidding price of 358 million leva including VAT. This is around 38 million leva above the projected price, but today, given inflation rates, increase of prices for recourses, construction materials and fuel, the amount seems reasonable.

Exactly the chosen developer proposed a project idea for the tunnel. There are access points to the tunnel from Gabrovo and Kazanlak with a total length of 10,5 km, plus five tunnels with a total length of four km, the longest of which 3, 22 km and six more bridges. The road, as well as the tunnels are planned to have two lanes (one per way), and the project was supposed to be realized in three-and-a-half years.

All three companies of the announced winner are connected to Veliko Zhelev. It is likely Minister of Interior Boyko Rashkov had exactly this in mind back in November 2021 when he the former moved funds to Dubai. Zhelev’s companies are among the ones that received the largest amounts of advances for the construction of Hemus Highway (connecting Sofia and Varna).

Wining this contract was important for him because his companies need to expand their portfolio and experience in tunnel construction. This would allow them to take part in the next big bids for railway development and underground for example. In winning this bid Hydrodtroy announced it would be procuring the services of EuroAtlantis Engineering – which is specialized in tunnel construction – as a subcontractor for 29% of the work for the future installation.

Precisely this was the reason the runner up consortium Shipchenski Prohod, which is made up of Trace Group Hold AD and Alve Consult Ltd to challenge the result. According to them the winner has not fulfilled the experience requirement, according to which the candidate must have built at least a 350 m tunnel in the last five years. At the end the Commission for the Protection of Competition, and subsequently the Supreme Administrative Court, dismissed the complaint.

While the story with selecting a developer was unfolding, the other public procurement, for choosing an overseer, was put on blocks. The proposals by the six candidates were rejected back in the summer of 2020 but their quotes were not made public for more than a year.

The shell game

Аt the end of last year Kiril Petkov’s government came to power and Grozdan Karazhov became Minister of Regional Development.

As early as the first press conference after taking office he announced that he was left surprised by the project decision for the tunnel under Shipka and there will be a new project.

"I was very surprised but I found a project and one very advanced procedure for developing a tunnel under Shipka with a lane for each way. We want to increase the capacity of the road in the tunnel and double it. Instead of two lanes, to have four. We will begin with the project idea and proceed to designing the technical project. This will not hold up the tunnel even a day because even as of now there is no technical project for it, nor funding," Grozdan Karadzhov said at the beginning of January.

Gabrovo locals met the news with disapproval. Grozdan Karadzhov quickly changed his opinion about a new project, he met with citizens of the town and told them that his initial reaction was emotional, apologized for the hasty words and wore sackcloth and ashes, in his own words.

Karadzhov explained that the change in his position comes from the fact that he was not aware that the tunnel is not on ots own but is a part of an already built 23-kilometer road around Gabrovo, which is a two-lane road. In addition, if the project is not completed

Bulgaria will have to return the EU the already spent funds on the road biassing Gabrovo, which amount to 150 million leva.

"there is no way for the bridge to double because it literally goes into the last houses in the town. And most importantly, if we modify this project or stop construction we will have to recover the money for the previous four stages, which we have already completed, to the European Commission. All these factors compelled me to return to the position that we should carry on with the project," Karadzhov told Mediapool.

He said that he asked the winner of the contract to reaffirm that his offer stands given the inflation rates. The consortium told Mediapool that they have confirmed the price but that they have not yet been invited to sign a contract, a month later.

Meanwhile, after more than a year and a half delay, the Road Infrastructure Agency managed to complete the public procurement selection procedure for construction oversight. With a decision from February 10 2022 the company DZZD Transconsult-Sveko was chosen for the task. The consortium includes the firms Transconsult BG Ltd and Sveko Energoproject AD. They won the bid with a price of almost 6,5 million leva including VAT, which is the second highest proposal among the six bidders in the procedure. The winner took the contract thanks to the high points the proposal got in the technical evaluation, according to the public records on procurement. The contract with them is also delayed without a known reason.

The procedure for choosing a road safety auditor is also on standby, although the bidding opened January 7 2022.

The Ministry of Ecology is blocking the construction of the tunnel

The fact that the construction of the tunnel will not be easy is clear since February when Gabrovo’s mayor Tania Hristova declared that she has filed an appeal regarding the Plan for Managing Balgarka Park because it jeopardizes building the tunnel under Shipka.

The plan was approved by Kiril Petkov’s government December 20 2021.In its official complaint to the court Gabrovo Municipality insists that the plan be changed so it includes the activities allowed under the Protected Areas Act, among which is infrastructure development projects that are part of development and technical plans and projects. If this does not happen, the realization of the project for a tunnel under Shipka is under question, Tania Hristova told Mediapool.

Regardless of the new obstacles facing the realization of the project, it remains the most advanced one in the new Transport Connectivity Operational Programme. The other two have many unknowns. Regarding the Rousse-Veliko Tarnovo highway it is still unclear where its starting point will be. It is dependent on the decision for a second bridge over Danube in Rousse and also needs approval from the Romanian side, Karadzhov explained. For the speed road along the Kresna defile on the other hand, it is still unknown what kind of track it will be.

Apart from this, the political turbulences and the lack of a normal government for the most part of 2021, Bulgaria slowed down significantly with regards not only to submitting its National Resilience and Recovery Plan to the European Commission, but also with the Cooperation Agreement 2021-2027 and the relevant operational programmes. In the words of Finance Minister Asen Vassilev, the plan is for the latter to be submitted for final approval after Brussels greenlights the Resilience and Recovery Plan, which is expected to happen in April. This deadline, however, was given before the war in Ukraine, which rearranged Europe’s agenda.

Fact box

The historic fight for the tunnel under Shipka

The fight of the citizens of Gabrovo and Kazanlak for the development of a railway and a tunnel under Shipka peak, which would connect the two Bulgarias began back in 1897, according to historical documents. In Parliament this fight is led by Gabrovo MPs and Ivan Vazov, who was an MP from Kazanlak. In the last day of 1897 Parliament votes a bill for a trans Balkan railway through Tarnovo-Sevlievo-Gabrovo-Shipka-Kazanlak into law.

Pressure from the French concessionaires of the mines in Krastets near Tryavna follows, for Bulgaria.the condition of the loan is for the railway not to go through a tunnel under Shipka but through the Tryavna Mountains, where the mines of the French company Prince Boris, also credited by the bank, are situated. Thus in 1907 the Parliament passes the project for a trans Balkan railway and construction begins with a loan of 32 million gold leva from the bank. The railway is finished in 1913.

The idea for a tunnel under Shipka resurfaces again after the democratic shift in 1991 following a decision of the government. Exploratory surveys of the intensity of the transport flows begin. The conclusion is that the road capacity in Gabrovo is full. Geological and project surveys begin. An economic and technical project is developed.

In 1994 during Liuben Berov’s government, more widely known as DPS and Multigroup’s rule, the stance that the construction should be given directly to a contractor, prevails. Iliya Pavlov’s group submits a request to Berov for establishing a consortium of Bulgarian development companies to build the tunnel. At the end though, an international bid is announced, which received 15 proposals, it concludes without a winner since none of the participants meet the criteria and the procedure is canceled in 1995.

Zhan Videnov’s government comes to power and it announces that tw tunnel under Shipka is not on the table.

In 2000 the idea resurfaces once again after Ivan Kostov’s government commissions a preliminary survey to Japanese consultants. They point out that the road is part of the pan European corridor No 9, which links the North East parts of Europe to the Mediterranean. The traffic projections are for it to reach 16800 cars in 2030, while the total costs for development according to the consultants will be 125 million USD. Funding for. The tunnel, nonetheless, was not provided.

In 2003 then-Finance Minister. Milen Velchev of the Saxonburg cabinet committed to finding funding for the project but failed. He said that in order to be realized, Bulgaria first needs to become a member of the EU and then the project should be included in the priority list, which eventually happens seven years later during GERB’s government.

Today Kiril Petkov’s government declared plans to realize three tunnels through Stara Planina: Shipka, Petrohan and for the future Black Sea Highway

---