Rikoti Project will shorten distance
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, May 9
The Rikoti Pass, a mountain pass which divides Georgia into its western and eastern parts, will be rehabilitated by 2020, which means that the distance between the two parts of the country will be significantly reduced.
Georgia’s Minister of Infrastructure and Regional development, Zurab Alavidze, says that the new road will reduce the distance between the east and west by 10 kilometers.
“Around 80 bridges and 40 tunnels will be built. The section is 54 kilometers long,” Alavidze said.
The minister added that the project will be finished in 3 years.
“We will do our best to finish this project timely, because it is the backbone of our country’s infrastructure,” said Alavidze.
The most complicated part of the project is the Chumateleti-Argveta section. Among the 90 bridges, the largest will be a 300 meter one, which will cross the Rikoti Mountains.
Giorgi Seturidze, the head of the Roads Department of Georgia, says that the new Rikoti project will be the most complicated construction in Europe over the following three years.
“We hope that we will get a fairly good and safe road section and by the end of the year we will have full documentation to determine the budget and to announce the tender in the beginning of next year to start construction,” Seturidze said.
The initiators of the project do not exclude the possibility that the new bypass will go through populated areas. In such cases, proper compensation will be offered to the population.
The Rikoti bypass is the busiest road section in Georgia, where around 12,000 vehicles pass every day.
The new road will link the east to the west and also will have a transit function for neighboring countries.
The Rikoti section project is a very important part of the Spatial Arrangement Plan of the government’s four-point plan, which envisages modifying Georgia's income tax rules, improving governance, accelerating infrastructure projects and developing higher education.
