The Vinkovci to Tovarnik to State Border section,33.5 kmin length, is part of the Pan-European Corridor X being of a major importance for both theRepublicofCroatiaand the EU. The rehabilitation of this section is the first such project inCroatiafinanced with the EU pre-accession funds, and also the first project that uses the EU funds to co-finance investments in the railway infrastructure. At the same time, this is a largest infrastructure project supported by the pre-accession assistance model, both financially and physically.
The Project was implemented under three separate contracts amounting to €59.5 million, funded through the Croatian state budget and the matching European Union grant at the rate of 48 percent. Italian company Salcef Construzioni Edili e Ferroviarie S.p.A. conducted the civil works, while the company Bombardier Transportation Italy, in consortium with the Italian-based SITE S.p.A. installed the traffic signalling and control system. TYPSA Consulting Engineers & Architects supervised the works.
The completion of the Project will primarily increase the train speed, reduce track and rolling stock maintenance costs; it will increase the railway capacity, as well as reliability and safety of railway transport. The novelty is also the centralized signalling control and train management system from the new centre at the Vinkovci station.
The designed parameters at this section of the railway line are: speed of160 kmper hour and axial load of 22.5 t per axle. However, it is not yet possible to drive at the designed speed, as the period in which the functioning of the equipment is being closely monitored should end by mid-2012 at the latest.
This Project has enabled the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure to gain valuable experience in implementing railway infrastructure projects under the IPA pre-accession programme, as well as to assume duties of a future Managing Body in the coming programme period, in which the Operational Programme ″Transport“ will be financed with the EU structural funds and the Cohesion Fund. TheRepublicofCroatia, then a full member of the European Union, will have access to considerable funds for development of transport infrastructure.
