452 m HRK bridge to connect the island of Pašman to the mainland

September 25, 2022 – Zadar County has included the project of connecting Pašman Island to the mainland in the spatial plan as one of its priorities. The will is there, but we do not yet know how and where this project will be financed, Hina told the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure.

As reported by Poslovni, the ministry points out that for the project to connect the island of Pašman to the mainland, a feasibility study with a cost-benefit analysis was prepared in 2021 for the project “Bridge to the mainland – island from Pašman with access roads to the bridge.” Based on the demand analysis of the traffic model, the main objective of the study was to select the best option to connect the island of Pašman and the mainland.

According to the ministry, the study assessed the construction of a girder bridge as the best option, consisting of two parts, the first of which would go from Pašman to the islet of Ričul, and from Ričul to the mainland. The estimated value of the project is nearly HRK 452 million.

From the mainland side, the bridge should be connected by the D8 national road with the future Zadar – Pakoštane bypass, and the road emerges on the very bank of the Pašman channel at the position of Cape Tukljača.

From the mainland, the planned route goes to the islet of Ričul, about 400 meters from the coast, and continues to Pašman, crossing the Pašman channel for a length of about 1400 meters. On the island of Pašman, the route continues, via the junction, to the national road D110, thus connecting the bridge to the main road of the islands of Pašman and Ugljan. The total length of the bridge would be 2203 and a half meters, and construction, according to projections, would take about three years.

The recently opened Pelješac Bridge is just over 2,400 meters long. The total cost of the project is estimated at 420 million euros, including the construction of the bridge, access roads and the Ston bypass.

“The fact is that the county of Zadar has included the mentioned project in the development plan as one of the priorities and the preparation of the documentation has started; however, we would like to note that the mentioned pre-feasibility study must be elaborated in more detail, especially concerning the preparation of the technical documentation, i.e. a more detailed elaboration of the investment and operating costs”, declared the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructures They also point out that the future source of funding should be determined for the option chosen, given that it is not eligible for co-financing from EU funds, so in this context they cannot say anything more for the moment.

By the way, the Pašman – mainland bridge, for which the municipality of Pašman received support from the Ministry of Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, is one of the most important projects for the island of Pašman, but also for Ugljan, which is connected to Pašman by a smaller bridge. The Ministry of Transport funded the pre-feasibility study to the tune of HRK 700,000, prepared by the international company Ernst & Young Consulting.

Interestingly, representatives of the Chinese company China Road and Bridge Corporation, which built the Pelješki Bridge on schedule, once visited the municipality of Pašman to inquire about the possibilities of building a bridge that would connect Pašman to the mainland. Representatives of the Chinese company then said that the bridge could be completed relatively quickly with a professional and thoughtful project. It is also not unimportant that the rocky bottom and the appropriate depth of about 13 meters on average would make this bridge much cheaper than that of Pelješac.

If built, the bridge could stop the depopulation of the two islands, and the price of land would rise, but some locals fear that the scenario of the rebuilt Vir will happen, where the bridge has not brought much in terms of tourism. .

The Municipality of Pašman has embarked on a project to build the Pašman – mainland bridge, which means for all islanders an increase in the quality of life thanks to a better connection with the mainland and a significant positive impact on the economy of the whole municipality, declared the former mayor of the municipality of Pašman, Krešimir Ćosić, who believes that this project will be crowned with success. For the Municipality of Pašman, this is a strategic project, the realization of which would provide residents with better opportunities to stay in their hometown. Ćosić recently stated that only the islands connected to the mainland have an increase in population and that the construction of a permanent link would lead to new jobs and a lower cost of living on the island.

Therefore, the Pašman Bridge would connect the island of Ugljan to the mainland since Ugljan and Pašman, which together have about 8,000 inhabitants, are already connected by the mentioned bridge to Ždrelac. There is even a detailed bridge construction project and complete technical documentation made twenty years ago at the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Zagreb.

The mayor of the municipality of Kukljica, one of the most developed tourist towns in Ugljan, Marin Boško, points out that in his town there are more people in favor of the construction of the bridge than against. “There are more pros than cons for this build,” Boško said of Hina. He points out that land and property prices would rise and depopulation would likely stop in the long term.

As the main problem of the possible construction of the Pašman Bridge, he points out the infrastructure that would not be able to accommodate many more tourists on the islands. “Infrastructure should be strengthened on both islands – both on Pašman and Ugljan, and by that I mean water infrastructure, sewage, better access roads,” Boško said, adding that the Pašman bridge would bring a lot of good not only to tourism, which the bridge would further develop. “If we had a bridge, we could reach the mainland at any time, emergencies wouldn’t depend on ferries, and more people from the island could work on the mainland and travel more easily every day,” Boško concluded.

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