Zestafoni bypass will be ready to use from May

Tbilisi: The Georgian Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia Irakli Karseladze along with Imereti State Trustee Zviad Shalamberidze, Mayor of Zestafoni Vasil Gvelesian and representatives of local self-government inspected the ongoing works of the Shorapani-Argveta section of Rikoti Bypass. The public will be able to use the bypass from May 2024.

Minister Irakli Karseladze stated “The Shorapani-Argveta section of Ricoti is in the final phase where all ten tunnels provided by the project have been cut and paved similarly 15 bridges out of 17 bridges have been built and other installation works are in progress. Accordingly the population will use the Zestafoni bypass on the Shorapani-Argveta section from May”.

According to the minister  “from May vehicles will no longer have to enter the city of Zestafon and will use the Zestafoni bypass, a new 4-lane road that will connect to the East-West expressway at the Argveta junction”.

Speaking on the occasion Zviad Shalamberidze said “The most important part of the Imereti section of the E-60 highway will be opened in May our fellow citizens will be able to move in the western direction without the traffic of the city.

Everyone knows that it was a very rough section and I think it will significantly reduce the travel time. We also took into account the interests of the businesses that operate in Zestafoni.

An auction will be announced where the interested parties will get to know where the state plans to arrange such fields where they will have an alternative opportunity to develop the same business.

It is to be further added that within the framework of the construction of the main road of Ricoti in total up to 52 km of roads 97 bridges and 51 tunnels are being built.

At this time 50 tunnels out of 51 tunnels have already been cut and the work of cutting the 51st tunnel is in progress. Of these 38 tunnels are already being used for road transport. Also out of 97 bridges provided by the project 89 bridges have already been built. Road transport is already using 65 completed bridges.

The total cost of the construction works of the Ricoti pass section is up to 2.6 billion GEL. Construction works will be completed in 2024.