The heavy rainfall of recent days has caused cracks in the escarpment and rockfall at kilometer 35 of the Qukës-Qafë Plloçë road.
On social networks and other information channels, it was said that due to landslides and rocks, this road was impassable and even the lives of passers-by were at risk. But this was actually misinformation for the public.
Citizens explains that the road closure has not had any consequences on traffic, let alone on the safety of passers-by, as the company contracted for the works had opened a parallel secondary road. "bypass" to enable pedestrians to continue on the road.
The diversion had been carried out about a week ago, preceding the situation that has occurred in recent days.
"The entire axis is open, easily accessible and under constant monitoring," the Albanian Road Authority said in an online communication.
Smaller collapses have been observed earlier on this road, which has been open to traffic for about two months. The 43.4 km segment was inaugurated with a ceremony and the presence of state representatives. Construction took about 16 years at a total cost of over 235 million dollars.
The terrain on which the road passes is unstable. The severe weather conditions make the situation even more difficult.
Despite the recent spate of disinformation, the quality of the work remains questionable. It appears that the authorities had not yet finalized the maintenance contracts, while landslides should have been taken into account in the design phase and carefully monitored during the construction phase.
In September 2025, ARRSH opened a tender for maintenance with a fund limit of over 330 thousand euros with a deadline for submitting bids at the end of October, but so far there has not been a winner announced.
The road belongs to category C1, with two lanes of 3,75 meters on each side and a one-meter auxiliary lane. As works of art, there are two tunnels, one 710 meters and the other 300 meters, and 4 bridges, two of which are metal.
16 years for 43.4 km of road
The odyssey of the Qukës-Qafë Plloçë road began in 2009, when former Prime Minister Sali Berisha promised its construction.
“A vote with us is a vote […] for the new Qukës-Plloçë-Pogradec highway,” Berisha expressed himself at the time in electoral meetings.
After the elections, Berisha cut the ribbon to launch the works. The project was later named "without study and with technical errors" by ARA experts.
It was designed with the state budget, but after the cessation of work and financial impossibility, in 2013 a loan was obtained for it, which would be the first of a series of such disbursements.
The loan, which aimed to complete the work, was obtained from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), and had a total value of 125 million dollars.
With the coming to power of the Socialist Party and Prime Minister Edi Rama, the project was revised, thus adding additional financial costs.
"This change was necessary, because if we had continued with the project we inherited, we would have been in an even more catastrophic situation than with the Tirana-Elbasan road.", Rama said during an inspection of the works in 2017.
Work officially resumed in 2015. In 2018, former Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, Damian Gjiknuri, during another inspection promised that the road would be functional in 2019. However, even after this deadline, the road was not opened.
During her speech at the Parliament podium in September 2020, the suspended Minister of Infrastructure Belinda Balluku stated that another $105.8 million was needed to complete the works: $56.8 million for the first two lots and $49 million for the third lot.
This need materialized two years later, in 2022, when the government took out another loan from the FSZH worth $49 million to complete the third lot of the road. This lot, which was not foreseen in the initial project.
According to the ARA, the initial cost for the first and second lots was 38 and 63.1 million dollars. While today, the first lot has gone for 74 million and the second lot for 95 million.
As for the financiers, according to the ARA, only 2.9 kilometers were financed from the state budget. While the rest was financed by BIZH (30 km) and FSZH (10 km).
The socialist government had to start its fourth term to complete this road at a cost that had doubled from the beginning, reaching over 235 million dollars.
Also Read:
- "The odyssey of the Qukës-Qafë Plloë road"
- "16 years for 43 km", the deadline for the Qukës-Qafë Plloçë road is extended again
- 16 years for 43 km; the Qukës-Qafë Plloçë road opens
Erisa Kryeziu has completed higher studies in Journalism and Communication and Master of Science in Public Relations at the University of Tirana. She has been a journalist and project manager at Citizens.al for five years, where she reports on social issues and human rights, especially on issues of rights at work, in education, gender equality, marginalized groups, people with disabilities such as and for environmental issues. At the same time, she works as a project coordinator with a focus on youth and media education. User of new reporting techniques such as "Mobile Journalism" and citizen engagement tools in reporting (ECR-Engage Citizens Journalism).
