Deutsch (DE)
Greek (GR)
Italiano (IT)
Magyar (HU)
Polski (PL)
Română (RO)
Slovensky (SK)
Slovenščina (SL)
Türkçe (TR)
Česká (CZ)
The construction of the long-awaited "Black Sea" highway, which will connect Burgas and Varna, is expected to start at the end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027 at the latest. This was reported today by the president of the agency, Jordan Valchev, at the conference "International connectivity - the key to the sustainable growth of Bulgarian tourism". The event was organized by the National Tourism Board with the institutional partnership of the Ministry of Tourism. Although no one would guarantee the exact date of commissioning today, the news about the projects is positive. This is particularly noteworthy in view of the fact that the planning of the "Black Sea" began already in 1971. At that time, the plan for a motorway ring would have included five motorways. According to Valchev, the Road Agency plans to launch a tender for the expansion of a four-lane road section between Burgas and Malko Tarnovo. The possibilities of doubling the route between Varna and Dobrichs are also under consideration.
The president of the Bulgarian Road Industry Chamber of Commerce, Zhivko Nedev, was also present at the conference, according to whom the highway is being built primarily for tourist traffic, and secondarily for traffic, and in recent years it has also come to the fore as an ecological issue, as the planned routes pass through protected areas. "Several options have been put forward, but only one meets approximately the ecological requirements. There are protected areas between Burgas and Varna, and the highway will either have to avoid them, which will then no longer serve tourism, but rather become a domestic route, or they will pass through on them subject to certain measures," he said. The "Black Sea" highway is of particular importance from the point of view of tourism, since maritime tourism generates about 70% of the income of all sectors. According to Eurostat data from the previous year, about 39% of citizens traveling to another European Union country chose to travel by air for at least one night, while about 58% used road transport and only about 3% chose water transport. It is clear from these data that land transport is ahead of the rest. Even though these facts have been known for a long time, and even though the route, while challenging, is relatively short compared to other highways in the country, construction has been delayed for decades.
