The Tirana–Elbasan Highway is a four-lane highway in central

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

and part of the A3 motorway opened to traffic on 16 June 2013, and completed in the summer of 2019. It covers the distance between the cities of

Tirana Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...

and

Elbasan Elbasan ( ; sq-definite, Elbasani ) is the fourth most populous city of Albania and seat of Elbasan County and Elbasan Municipality. It lies to the north of the river Shkumbin between the Skanderbeg Mountains and the Myzeqe Plain in central ...

in the shortest way possible and its total length is .

Financing

$223M from the Islamic Bank for Reconstruction has partly financed the road construction. The total construction cost is calculated at $400M. Other banks financing the highway are the OPEC fund, the Abu Dhabi fund, and the Saudi Fund for development.

Characteristics and Krrabë tunnel

The most important section consists of the Krrabe Tunnel, whose length is about 4.9 km. The highway was opened to traffic when the construction of the entire route from Tirana to Elbasan was finalized as projected in June 2013 (18 months construction time). The highway was symbolically inaugurated by the former Albanian Prime Minister

Sali Berisha Sali Ram Berisha (; born 15 October 1944) is an Albanian conservative politician and former cardiologist who served as the second President of Albania from 1992 to 1997 and Prime Minister from 2005 to 2013. He is also the current chairman of ...

on Sunday June 16, 2013. The highway was built without proper geological study resulting in the collapse of a hill section near Ibe. As a result, the completion of the highway was only finalized in the summer of 2019. As of August 2016, the Tirane - TEG and Krrabe Tunnel -

segments were fully functional. The Mullet - Ibe segment was only functional on one side of the highway while the TEG - Mullet and Ibe - Krrabe Tunnel segments were until summer 2019 under construction. Also, due to safety concerns, the Krrabe Tunnel was only opened to traffic to flow on one lane per direction.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tirana-Elbasan Highway National roads in Albania Transport in Tirana County