The Croatian state-run road operator Hrvatske Ceste (HC) stated on Thursday that earlier in the morning the Greek Avax company had started constructing a ring-road at Ston on the peninsula of Peljesac, which is part of the Peljesac Bridge project aimed at improving Dalmatia's road connectivity.

The Ston ring-road, consisting of the Sparagovici/Zaradeze-Prapratno and Prapratno-Doli sub-sections, is estimated at HRK 511.5 million without Value Added Tax (VAT).

The HC expects Avax to build the 18-kilometre-long ring road within 28 months.

The Sparagovici/Zaradeze-Prapratno sub-section includes a viaduct, and the Prapratno-Doli subsection two tunnels and two bridges.

A month ago, a group consisting of Strabag AG and Strabag d.o.o., started construction work on their part of access roads to the future Peljesac Bridge.

The Duboka-Sparagovici/Zaradeze section, to be built by that group, is 12.05 kilometres long and its construction will take 33 months.This segment of the network of access roads costs HRK 478.3 million without VAT.

As many as 410 Chinese and 60 Croatian workers have been hired to build the Peljesac Bridge. In addition, 21 vessels are being used for undersea work.

The bridge in southernmost Croatia is being built by the China Bridge and Road Corporation. The EU is co-financing 85% of the construction cost and Croatia the rest.