Kyriakos Mitsotakis will attend and speak at today’s contract signing ceremony for the Skaramagkas Triple Junction at the Diomedes Botanical Garden at 12:30 p.m., shortly before his departure for Paris, where he will participate in a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing for Ukraine. The prime minister is placing particular emphasis in the coming period on infrastructure, and on the completion and delivery of new projects: During July, the E-65 motorway will be fully opened to traffic — a road of “enormous importance for Western Macedonia and Western Thessaly,” as he noted at the recent cabinet meeting. By the end of July, five additional stations of the Thessaloniki Metro will begin operating, with the line extending all the way to Kalamaria. During the summer, the first section of the Northern Road Axis of Crete — the Neapoli–Agios Nikolaos link — will be opened to traffic. The prime minister has also set targets for the next six months in the area of infrastructure: the completion of railway network restoration following the natural disasters caused by Storm “Daniel,” and the further acceleration of the Flyover project in Thessaloniki.
Projects reshaping Greece’s transport map before the end of summer
Today’s contract signing for the construction of the Skaramagkas Triple Junction marks the beginning of a two-month period during which landmark infrastructure projects across the country will either be launched or delivered — a development the government is expected to capitalize on politically.
The Skaramagkas Triple Junction is a project set to provide much-needed relief to Athens’ chronic traffic congestion. It includes the connection of the Western Peripheral Road of Aigaleo with the Athens–Corinth National Highway, as well as the upgrading of Schistou Avenue, creating an alternative route that will help decongest the heavily burdened Kifissos Avenue. Construction will begin immediately and the project is estimated to be completed in autumn 2029.
In the coming days, work is also expected to begin on a critical intervention at the Metamorfosi interchange, with the aim of creating a new, independent entry point onto the Athens–Thessaloniki National Highway from Attiki Odos (in the direction of Piraeus only), finally putting an end to the daily gridlock at the point where two merging entry branches converge — from the Airport toward Lamia and from Elefsina toward Lamia.
The first project scheduled for delivery during this two-month summer period is the northern section of the Central Greece Motorway E-65, from Kalambaka to the Egnatia Odos, expected on July 23. In practice, with the earlier completion of the Patras–Pyrgos motorway and now the E-65, the construction of the mainland Greek motorway network will be fully complete — after decades of studies, tenders, objections, legal challenges, and construction works.
According to official information, the Central Greece Motorway E-65, with a total length of 181.5 kilometers, connects Eastern and Western Greece, makes a decisive contribution to the development of the Greek regions, and is part of the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T). This road — which had to overcome numerous legal, financial, and construction obstacles before reaching completion — was built entirely on a new alignment, cutting diagonally across central Greece. The northern section of the E-65, which remains to be opened to traffic, has a total length of 70.5 km and a budget of €442.1 million. With all 181.5 km of fully operational motorway now in place, the port of Igoumenitsa — which serves as Greece’s gateway to Central Europe — will be connected to the port of Volos, while the total travel time from the port of Piraeus to the Western Balkans will be reduced by approximately two hours. Notably, the journey from Lamia to the Egnatia Odos via the E-65 will now take 1 hour and 45 minutes, down from 3 hours and 15 minutes just a few years ago.
Shortly after, possibly on July 28, the Thessaloniki Metro extension toward Kalamaria will open to passengers. With five new stations spanning 4.78 km, the Kalamaria extension is designed to meet the mobility needs of residents and visitors in the area, boost commercial activity, and improve the quality of life in eastern Thessaloniki. The new extension aims to facilitate connections between the city center and the neighborhoods of Kalamaria, Aretsou, Nea Krini, and Mikra, immediately relieve pressure on the road network, and significantly improve local air quality.
The travel time from Mikra Station to the center of Thessaloniki is expected to be cut in half — from 30 minutes to just 15 minutes — while the new section will serve an additional 63,000 passengers. CO2 emissions are estimated to be reduced by 43 tonnes per day, as the operation of the five new stations will result in approximately 12,000 fewer private vehicles on the roads on a daily basis. From August onward, the Thessaloniki Metro will have a total of 18 underground stations — 13 along Line 1 and 5 along the Line 1 Extension to Kalamaria.
On July 31 — or at the latest in early August — a ten-kilometer stretch of the Northern Road Axis of Crete (VOAK) will be delivered, with the completion of the Neapoli–Agios Nikolaos section. This is a project set to completely transform the road transport map of the island of Crete, and is being implemented through the construction of three distinct sub-projects: the Chania–Heraklion section (Concession Agreement), the Hersonissos–Neapoli section (PPP), and the Neapoli–Agios Nikolaos section (public works contract). The project is co-financed with a total contribution of approximately €370 million from the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility. More specifically, the Neapoli–Agios Nikolaos section is funded with approximately €100 million, the Hersonissos–Neapoli section with €90 million out of a total budget of €281 million, and the Chania–Heraklion section with approximately €180 million.
Finally, just before summer draws to a close, a significant portion of the road and rail network restoration works — following the devastating impact of Storms “Daniel” and “Elias” — is expected to have been completed. Specifically, what the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport plans to deliver by the end of August is the railway signaling systems, ETCS, remote control, and electrification infrastructure along the stretch from Palaiofarsalos to Krannona.
