GAZELA BRIDGE REHABILITATION

The project concerns (i) the rehabilitation of the Gazela bridge on the E70/E75 Highway crossing Belgrade, forming part of Pan European Corridor X. It will also include the (ii) rehabilitation and upgrading of access roads with a total length of 29.3 km and (iii) the reconstruction/ upgrading of the R251 ring road between Lestane and Zeleznik located in the south of Belgrade with a total length of 29.4 km.

The project will guarantee the use of the bridge under safe conditions and will improve traffic flows on the access roads. Additionally, the project will allow a new alternative for transit traffic through Belgrade and will improve public transport within the City.

The project comprises the rehabilitation of existing infrastructure on existing alignments and the upgrading to a uniform standard of the R251 ring road, so that it can cope with heavy goods vehicles. The project would therefore neither fall under Annex I nor Annex II of the EC Directive, thus not requiring an EIA. Taking into account the review of documentation concerning the project, no significant environmental problems are foreseen and the project should have a rather limited environmental impact, save for a potential temporary severance for the part of the population living along the R251 road due to some heavy traffic diversion during bridge reconstruction.

The project will require the relocation of informal settlements currently established underneath both ends of the bridge. The Bank will work with the appropriate authorities to ensure that such resettlement, as is required, is undertaken using international good practice. The Bank will work closely with all the co-financers (namely EBRD and EAR) and the Serbian authorities to ensure an acceptable outcome.

Procurement of works will be on the basis of open international competitive bidding in line with EIB's Guide to Procurement and/or EBRD's procurement rules. It is expected that an appropriately staffed Project Implementation Unit (PIU) with experienced Technical Assistance will be responsible for assisting in the management of the procurement process.

National competitive bidding will be applied for the procurement of the Design studies The procurement of the Supervision and Management consultants will be on the basis of international competitive bidding according to EU-regulations.