In the next two years, Slovenia will finally complete motorway between Austria and Croatia.
Traffic jams which occur during tourist season in Slovenia, when travelling from the Austrian border to the Gruškovje/Macelj border crossing with Croatia, will become history by the end of 2018 when the construction works on the completion of 13 kilometres long motorway to the border crossing will be completed. According to Slovenia media, construction works are progressing well, reports Jutarnji List on December 29, 2016.
Works on the motorway began in mid-2015, and half of the route has already been opened, while the construction of remaining 5.78 kilometres to Macelj will be completed within two years. Therefore, starting with the 2019 tourist season, there will not be any more traffic jams, according to the plans prepared by the Slovenian state-owned company DARS which manages Slovenian highways.
Construction crews have exceeded their plans by two percent this year, thanks to good weather and good organization, write the Slovenian media.
When the 13-kilometer-long section is completed, it will cost a total of 251 million euros, of which a large part was obtained or secured from European funds, according to the Slovenian media. The construction works are taking so much time due to the difficult terrain which includes seven overpasses, three underpasses, fifteen bridges, and several crossings for pedestrians, cyclists and animals, as well as a twin-tube tunnel in the length of 105 metres.
Austria solved the final bottleneck on its part of the Hamburg-Thessaloniki route, via Nuernberg, Graz, Maribor, and Croatia, twelve years ago by installing second tube of the Plabutsch tunnel. However, according to the Slovenian media, congestion could just move to the Croatian side. “The motorway from Macelj to Zagreb has not yet been completed, and the traffic between Đurmanec and Krapina includes two-way traffic on just one side of the motorway. It is not known when the other half of the motorway will be completed on the route which includes three tunnels”, claim the Slovenian media.
