Maliakos-Kleidi highway

The Aegean Motorway S.A. was established on June 12, 2007 in the Greek town of Larissa as a concession company for designing, building and financing as well as operating and maintaining the Maliakos – Kleidi highway. The highway, which is 230 kilometers long, forms an important part of the PATHE axis and connects the capital Athens with Thessaloniki, the second biggest city of Greece. The investment volume of the public-private partnership project amounts to 1.6 billion euros.

The Aegean Motorway S.A. will charge toll fees on this route until 2038, the year when the 30-year term of the concession ends. After starting operations on the three new tunnel structures with a total length of about 11 kilometers (twin tubes of 2 x 11 kilometers) the Maliakos – Kleidi highway will be completely opened to traffic in April 2017. Aegean Motorway S.A. has created its own service areas to ensure smooth highway operations. The 'Operation and Maintenance' division ensures trouble-free traffic operations and carries out regular and comprehensive maintenance work. The 'Motorway Management Center' and 'Customer Service' are operated 24 hours a day all year round.

HOCHTIEF Engineering has been heavily involved in the project since the pre-qualification and bidding phase and has helped set the strategic course in technical and organizational planning matters. During construction, the focus was on planning the tunnel lining, which was realized as an unreinforced inner shell for the first time in Greece. In addition, the construction site team was supported by technical consulting and management services, e.g. in the geotechnical evaluation of the subsoil, in the analysis and evaluation of the existing structures and in the planning and execution of the technical building services for the tunnels.

Facts

• Country: Greece
• Client: Ministry of Infrastructure, Transportation and Networks
• Contract type: PPP
• Investment volume: EUR 1.6 billion
• Contract duration: 30 years (incl. construction period, 2008-2038)
• Participants: HOCHTIEF PPP Solutions GmbH (38.89%), Aktor Concessions (22.22%), J&P/Avax (23.61%), Vinci (15.28%)