Competition to build Bulgaria's Trakiya motorway heated up as 11 companies submitted bids to link up Nova Zagora and Yambol versus the eight candidates that showed up to construct the road between Stara Zagora and Nova Zagora. A poll of Dnevnik among road builders revealed nine of the eleven suitors and also found a reshuffle in the tie-ups as well as new kids on the block that did not take part in the previous tender.

The cost of the 36-kilometre stretch connecting Nova Zagora and Yambol is estimated at BGN 216 million. Bulgarian consortium Trace Motorways, the winner at the first tender, is back to the game, bringing together Trace Group, SK 13 Holding, Road Constructio Dobrich and ViaStroyEngineering.

The tie-in Bulgarian Autobahns is also intact, with old faces Glavbolgarstroy Infrastructure Construction, Black Sea, Patstroy-92 and ISA 2000. Turkish Dogus, Greek Aktor and Austria's Strabag, which bid in the first tender, have filed offers for the second one as well.

Holding Roads has this time opted for tying up with Stanilov, which has won a contract to build a stretch of Sofia's underground system. In the previous tender, the blue-blooded company teamed with Austria's Alpine and Croatia's Constructor Engineering. The Austrian firm has most probably decided to play solo at this tender. Constructor, for its part, has paired with Razlog-based Balkanstroy, a company that has bagged a string of infrastructure projects in Sofia, which have been stalled by financial hurdles.

The first tender's runner-up - Greece's Terna - has this time joined forces with Bulgaria’s Sienit, the Greek company's Bulgarian office said.