Bridge project, World Bank: Only 21% of the financing disbursed, almost 10 interventions ready after Viroi and Beshiri

Only about a fifth of the financing for the “Building Resilient Bridges” project in Albania has been disbursed so far, while the World Bank assesses the overall implementation progress as “moderately satisfactory”.

The latest implementation status report, published on 5 October, shows that of the revised financing of 57.97 million dollars, 12.14 million dollars have been disbursed, or 20.94% of the total, while 45.83 million dollars still remain undisbursed. The loan was approved in March 2023 and the project is expected to close on 31 July 2029.

The World Bank keeps its rating for progress towards the project’s objectives at “satisfactory”, while overall implementation progress remains “moderately satisfactory”. The overall risk rating is “moderate”.

The report’s assessment

“Implementation is progressing across all project components. Civil works on the Viroi Bridge have been substantially completed and the bridge has been opened to traffic. The contract for the Beshiri Bridge has been awarded and procurement procedures for civil works on 10 other bridges are under way or expected to start soon,” the report says.

The project aims to increase the resilience of critical bridge infrastructure to climate change and natural disasters, and to improve the management of road and bridge assets.

Results data show that by March 2026 only one bridge had been rehabilitated, rebuilt or built to international climate-resilience standards, while the target is 30 bridges by March 2031. Beneficiaries with improved access to transport services still remain at zero, against a target of 350,000 people. The indicator for daily road users who will benefit from safer bridges also remains at zero, against a target of 200,000.

Design work, however, is more advanced. By March 2026, 13 bridge designs had been completed according to international guidelines on resilience to climate and natural disasters, out of a target of 15 by March 2029. For 86% of the projects, public consultations and surveys have been carried out, while the same percentage was audited for climate resilience before construction.

The report notes meanwhile that some of the instruments envisaged for road and bridge management are not yet in use. The RAMS/BMS system and remote-monitoring data were not being used by March 2026 for maintenance planning and budgeting.

Likewise, by the same period no data on road conditions had yet been entered into the RAMS/BMS system, the disaster-losses database had not been created and service-level requirements had not been drafted. These indicators have a final target year of 2029.

The project is implemented by the Albanian Road Authority and its largest component, bridge infrastructure, has a projected cost of 44 million dollars.