Page "Transport in Bulgaria" Paragraph 12

Long-term plans call for upgrading higher-quality roads and integrating the road system into the European grid.

The focus is on improving road connectors with Turkey and Greece and domestic connections linking Sofia, Plovdiv, and Burgas.

Bulgaria has delayed building some key highway connections since the 1990s, but European Union membership is a strong incentive for completion.

The National Strategy for Integrated Infrastructure Development calls for construction of 720 kilometers of new highways by 2015.

A 114-kilometer link between eastern Bulgaria and the Turkish border is scheduled for completion in 2013.

As of 2004, two international highways passed through Bulgaria, and a major highway ran from Sofia to the Black Sea coast.

Proposed international corridors would pass from north to south, from Vidin to the border with Greece and from Ruse to the border with Greece, and west to east, from Serbia through Sofia to Burgas, Varna, and Edirne ( Turkey ).

A new bridge link with Romania is scheduled for completion in 2012, relieving road and railroad congestion in that direction.