The Reconstruction Agency is seeking external loan financing for the construction of the Lviv Northern Bypass Road.
According to Deputy Minister of Finance Oleksandr Kava, this will help solve not only the city’s problems but also those of many Ukrainian citizens and businesses, as reported by the CFTS portal.
If the project is successfully implemented, it will save travelers up to one hour of travel time on the way to the Ukrainian-Polish border, Kava said in an interview with the media outlet Budget Talks.
The deputy minister said that this highway section was originally part of a large-scale project to build a Category I concession highway from Lviv to Krakovets. Proposed in the mid-1990s, the project included plans for a four-lane highway with a speed limit of 130 km/h and protection against side exits. Although the necessary project documentation was prepared at the time, construction never began.
Later, the Lviv northern bypass road was separated from the larger project. The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) allocated funding for its construction. Construction was scheduled to begin in 2022, but for reasons known to everyone, this did not happen, and the funds were redirected to other projects, Kava said.
According to him, the Reconstruction Agency is also working to update the project documentation for the Lviv-Krakovets road. The agency also plans to finance the project with loans. "Our partners are very interested in this project," Kava said, expressing hope that construction could begin on part of the project as early as next year.
