Driving in Croatia is by far the best way to see the beauty and the natural diversity of the interior of the country, as well as that of the coast, but many an accident occurs on some of Croatia's more dangerous roads, often resulting in serious injury and death. The Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure aims to evaluate the situation in order to properly inform drivers of known hazardous areas, as well as work to make them safer.
As Josip Bohutinski/VL/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 31st of January, 2019, the overall purpose of this project, as has since been explained by the competent ministry, is to improve Croatia's road infrastructure by repairing proven dangerous places on the country's public roads, ie, reducing the number of accidents which result in material damage and reducing the number of injured and fatally wounded on state roads.
The Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure provided a massive 55,433,982.80 kuna for the remediation of hazardous sites (black spot removal) on state roads project. Croatian roads (Hrvatske ceste), as a user of this project, will repair a total of 23 known hazardous sites throughout the Republic of Croatia. The aforementioned black road removal project on Croatian roads is being carried out as part of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure's investment in the development of transport infrastructure aimed at increasing road safety, Vecernji list writes.
The aforementioned ministry said that back in June of last year, they launched a call for the co-financing of the project which aims to bring further safety measures to driving in Croatia, for which Croatian roads was readily approved. The total value of the project stands at 68,596.132,80 kuna, with eligible financing costs amounting to 55,433,982.80 kuna, and 47,118,885.38 kuna will be financed from the European Regional Development Fund and 8,315,097.42 kuna from the state budget.
As previously mentioned, the competent ministry explained that the purpose of this project is to improve road infrastructure by repairing areas which are known to be dangerous on Croatia's public roads, with the aim of reducing the number of accidents, many of which are serious and even fatal. Croatian roads has therefore produced a document entitled ''a plan for the rehabilitation of dangerous areas on the state roads of the Republic of Croatia" based on the then valid methodology for the proper identification of such dangerous sites.
According to this methodology, on Croatia's state roads during the period up until the end of 2016, 32 hazardous sites were identified, nine of which have been remedied and the remaining 23 dangerous sites are the subject of this project. The 23 black spots were divided into 12 counties, in Zagreb (1), Karlovac (2), Varaždin (1), Bjelovar-Bilogora (1), Primorje-Gorski Kotar (7), Požega-Slavonia (2), Vukovar (1), Zadar (2), Lika-Senj (1), Šibenik-Knin (1) and Split-Dalmatia (2).
The ministry went on to explain that on the basis of the project documentation prepared in these hazardous places, the plan is to carry out works such as the modification of all types of traffic signaling and equipment, including better application and placement of traffic signalisation, the construction of sufficient widths for access roads and for pedestrian walkways, pedestrian crossings, the construction of roundabouts, pavement works, the installation of protective fences, the relocation and construction of bus stops, as well as the reconstruction of intersections.
Driving in Croatia should be a pleasure, and the correction of known dangerous sites, the ministry says, will improve traffic safety on the country's roads with an emphasis on safety placed on some of the most vulnerable traffic participants, including pedestrians and bikers. Croatia's roads should be built and corrected to ensure a better tolerance for potential driving mistakes, which will reduce the overall likelihood of an accident taking place.
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Click here for the original article by Josip Bohutinski/VL on Poslovni Dnevnik
