The southbound carriageway of the Kalavasos bridge on the motorway between Limassol and Nicosia is to open to traffic on Saturday, the public works department’s chief engineer Andreas Diakos said on Thursday.

Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency, he explained that works to upgrade the bridge to bring it up to modern safety standards had begun in October 2023, and that while the bridge’s southbound carriageway will be open from Saturday, the overall works will not be complete until July.

As such, on January 30, the northbound carriageway will close and is expected to reopen on May 15.

“The bridge was essentially designed and constructed in the 1980s using American standards, while now, European building codes are in force, and thus an upgrade was needed to ensure that the bridge complies with European Union regulations,” he said.

He added that there were “oxidised reinforcements and loose concrete” within the bridge’s structure, meaning that repairs were required.

The full cost of the project was €4.5 million plus value added tax.

Diakos was then asked whether the contractor would be required to pay a fine should there be further delays in the project, and replied in the affirmative, before going on to explain the contract.

“The contract has two clauses, one which concerns the general project lasting 80 weeks from October 2023, and another concerning the period for which the motorway will be closed. The contractor is entitled to close the motorway for 15 weeks in each direction to carry out the work required on top of the bridge,” he said.

Asked about the impact that last year’s concrete workers’ strike had on the project, he said there was “no concrete on the construction site for 31 calendar days”.

He said some delays in the original project were caused by rain but then added that “the main cause of any delays in implementing the project was the strike, since without concrete, construction work cannot be carried out”.

On this matter, he said the delay was “justified” and that as such, the contractor would not incur a fine for this.