Montenegro and Albania will spend around 20 million euros in order to connect the shores of two coastal centers - Montenegrin Ulcinj and Albanian Velipoj - with a bridge on the Bojana River. Radio Free Europe.
The plan is to place load-bearing concrete pillars for a 310-meter-long bridge in the Bojana riverbed, not far from its confluence with the Adriatic Sea.
The announced construction is followed by many unknowns from the Montenegrin side. Among them are the quality of the terrain where it will be built, the absence of the Spatial Plan of Montenegro and the impact on critically endangered fish species.
On the Albanian side, the river is included in the Ramsar list of waters of international importance. The plan to include Bojana on this list, also from the Montenegrin side, was not realized.
According to the activist for environmental protection from Ulcinj, Zenepa Lika, the plan of the two states indicates a "reversed sequence of steps for the construction of this bridge":
"The Albanian side ignored the inclusion of an internationally recognized area. It is no less regrettable that the Montenegrin side did not take into account the negative impact on the natural values of this truly unique area."
In 1991, Montenegro was declared an ecological country. This determination was also found in its Constitution.
Bringing cities closer together
The agreement on the construction of the bridge was signed on February 27 in Podgorica by Montenegrin and Albanian Prime Minister Dritan Abazović and Edi Rama after a joint session of the two governments.
At the time, it was said that the bridge, from the current 70 to just a few kilometers, would shorten the distance between Ulcinj, in the far south of Montenegro, and Velipoj, in the northwest of Albania.
The two states will share the costs of around 20 million euros, which is 11 million more than was originally announced in June 2022.
"It's a little more expensive than the first time, but it's nothing spectacular. If you divide it in half, it's really not much," Abazović said at the end of February at a conference with Rama.
The Albanian Prime Minister said that they paid for the project idea, and that they will jointly cover the construction.
"Salaries are higher in Montenegro, so it is not possible for Albania to pay for the bridge, if it has already paid for the project idea," he said.
According to announcements, the bridge should be completed in August next year.
"I don't know that anything can be more effective and cheaper than that," said Abazović.
Devastated Tara as a warning
In the agreement, however, the two states undertook to speed up and facilitate the procedures for approving appropriate permits and fulfilling environmental obligations.
The Environmental Protection Agency told RSE that for the construction of the bridge it is necessary to prepare an Environmental Impact Assessment Report.
When asked if it had already received certain documents related to the bridge, the Agency said that "it has not been delivered so far".
The experience of building bridges on the highway shows that Montenegro does not have developed mechanisms for monitoring and following up the construction of such projects.
Although Montenegrin ecologists warn that the Tara River was devastated during the construction of a highway over six kilometers long, the contractor, the Chinese company China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), offered to rehabilitate only half a kilometer.
"But even if we have developed monitoring, the human factor is our weak link, because we simply don't see natural values as a resource that we need to preserve, but only look through the prism of profit," Lika told RSE.
Precisely because of underdeveloped monitoring and planning mechanisms, construction causes concern for the river and the entire Bojana delta, says the executive director of the non-governmental organization Green home Azra Vuković.
"Especially because it is an area that has multiple importance, both at the national and international level," says Vuković.
The Bojana River is a corridor for the migration of rare and endangered species of fish from the sea to Lake Skadar. Among them is the European eel, which has the status of a critically endangered species.
Previously mapped ecological problems - the presence of waste and wastewater, filling and occupation of habitats by construction of buildings on the shores of Bojana, soil erosion - otherwise threaten animal species.
Vuković told RFE/RL that the construction of the bridge may represent additional pressure on this sensitive ecosystem.
"Especially if all measures to reduce the impact on the environment are not taken into account during the planning and execution of works."
Vuković states that 15 years ago, with the help of international experts, a draft of the fundamental study for the establishment of the Bojana Delta protected area was drawn up, which, however, did not result in the granting of nature park status.
Examine the soil for erosion on Ada
The bridge will be located above the bifurcation of the Bojana River into two branches that form the exclusive tourist resort of Adu Bojana in Montenegro, where there are already problems with beach erosion.
This erosion cannot have any effect on the stability of the future bridge due to the relative distance, according to expert in this field, retired professor Sava Petković.
He adds, however, that the future bridge will be founded on two pillars in the riverbed, which is composed of thick deposits of sand.
"Therefore, the stability of the bridge could be threatened by local erosion around the bridge pillars," Petković told RSE.
He adds that this should be shown by erosion analyzes around the bridge pillars.
We did not receive information that any research was done, said Ksenija Vukmanović, who is the manager of the team for the creation of the Ulcinj Spatial Urban Plan (SUP).
"I, on behalf of the working team working on planning documentation for Ulcinj, requested this documentation from the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism, but so far I have not received anything".
The Ministry of Ecology has not responded to RSE's inquiries on this topic for weeks.
The construction of the bridge was one of the topics of the interstate meeting on the border crossing on the Albanian side, which was held in November last year.
At that meeting, the representative of the Ministry of Capital Investments, Dalibor Milošević, said that Montenegro needs to adopt a Spatial Plan in order for the bridge to be built.
The spatial plan of Montenegro was valid for the period until 2020, and the new one has not yet been adopted.
According to Vukmanović, the bridge is mentioned in the lower-order plans - the current PUP and the Special Purpose Spatial Plan for the coastal area.
Fishermen worried, citizens satisfied
The sandy beaches of Ulcinj and Velipoja are together more than 30 kilometers long.
Speaking about them, the Montenegrin Prime Minister said that the construction of the bridge could be an introduction to large investments from the Ulcinj side.
"Why wouldn't someone think that in 10 or 15 years, some new, under the signs of allegations, Antalya will be in that zone," said Abazović.
His enthusiasm is not shared by some fishermen from Ulcinj.
"They are not happy with the idea of building a bridge, because they think it will affect the fish stock, but also the environment of Delta Bojana," says Lika.
She thinks that the people of Ulcinj do not understand enough how the construction of the bridge will affect nature, because they are eager for infrastructure investments that have been absent in this city for the last 30 years.
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