4000 Tons of Pelješac Bridge Leaves China on One Ship
September 15, 2020 – Construction of the Pelješac bridge continues despite the ongoing pandemic – a monster-sized shipment of bridge segments is currently on its way to Croatia
The Pacific Alert is 160 metres long and 27 metres wide. She set sail from Nantong, China on 10th September. Her cargo? 4000 tons of the Pelješac bridge.
We say 4000 tons, but, that's a slight exaggeration. The actual weight of the Pelješac bridge pieces she carries is more accurately 3,840 tons. The 13 pieces are heavy construction elements for the bridge and are expected to arrive in Croatian waters on 5th October.
This is the second such heavily loaded ship to set sail for Croatia carrying the Pelješac bridge parts, which have been constructed in China. The first ship with Peljesac bridge segments arrived in February this year, but production in China was thereafter halted due to coronavirus. The recent arrival of 100 Chinese welders who will connect the Peljesac bridge segments, and the resuming of production in China, indicate that the project is back on track despite the ongoing pandemic.
The Peljesac bridge will connect south Dalmatia to the rest of Croatia and will negate crossing the time-consuming Bosnian border to reach Dubrovnik. This will improve southern Croatia's accessibility to road users. The region of Dubrovnik and Neretva has in 2020 suffered worst from a fall in visitor numbers because it is mostly reliant on charter flights and large cruise ships. The activities of airlines and such ships has been curtailed by coronavirus.
The Pacific Alert is a general cargo ship that was built in 2010 and is sailing under the flag of Cyprus.
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Four of Croatia's Strategic Projects Located in Dubrovnik-Neretva County
It might come as a surprise to many, especially with just how long things take to get done in Croatia, that there are multiple highly significant projects, several of which are considered to be strategic, going on at the moment.
Despite the fact that Pelješac bridge and its Chinese builders are the most talked about part of Croatia's current strategic projects, the country has more than just one mega-project going on, especially in the extreme south of Dalmatia.
As Morski writes on the 15th of June, 2019, the commission for evaluating and identifying proposals of strategic projects has come to a decision that include four such projects from Croatia's southernmost county, Dubrovnik-Neretva County.
On the list of strategic projects of the Republic of Croatia lie the road connection of the rest of Croatia with southern Dalmatia, more specifically the construction of the aforementioned and much anticipated Pelješac bridge along with its accompanying access roads, a project funded primarily by European Union funds.
The project is of enormous significance not only to Croatia, but to Europe, as this will connect the EU's territory, bypassing the need to travel through Neum (Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is not in the EU) when going to or leaving the Dubrovnik area. Croatian roads (Hrvatske ceste) is the investor in the bridge's access roads, which are progressing at at a much slower rate than the construction of the bridge currently is.
Another, much less talked about project is the Lučino razdolje waste management centre, whose investor is the waste management agency of Dubrovnik-Neretva County, the construction of an infrastructure for a tanker connection for petroleum products and liquefied gas in the Port of Ploče, which is an investment undertaken by the Port Authority of Ploče, and the replacement of submarine 110 KV cables, a project in which the investor is a Croatian transmission system operator.
The fact that these projects are included in the List of Strategic Projects of the Republic of Croatia confirms their enormous importance to the state.
Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle and politics pages for much more on Croatia's major projects, strategic and otherwise.
