Croatia plans to finish A1 motorway to Dubrovnik

The Croatian Government signaled on Saturday that it plans to make good on a years-long promise to complete a motorway all the way to Dubrovnik.

The construction of the Pleješac Bridge was the first large infrastructure investment in Croatia’s south in decades. Now that the bridge has been completed, linking the country’s south with the Pelješac Peninsula and bypassing the tiny section of coast belonging to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Government is promising to finish the A1 motorway from Metković to Dubrovnik.

Nine out of ten visitors to Dubrovnik arrive there by airplane. That could change if there was a faster way to get there by car.

Former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader made that promise back in 2009, opening construction on the planned road that never got off the ground.

However, the plan was raised again this week when Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said his Government would try to draft a financial plan to bring the project to fruition in the next decade.

“There are four elements to this. One is to connect Metković to the motorway and build a section to Komarna. Then we need to continue the route through Pelješac towards Dubrovnik. And, of course, we need to build a fast road from the airport to the city,” Plenković said on Saturday in Dubrovnik, where he was attending a meeting of central bankers and economists.

Officials in Dubrovnik are cautiously optimistic about the announcement.

“The residents of Croatia’s south would be able to travel much faster, better, and safer to Split and Zagreb, not to mention further on to Europe by car. There are many benefits to this,” said Mato Franković, the mayor of Dubrovnik.

The most complex and expensive section of the motorway would be the part between the Pelješac Bridge and Osojnik.

“That’s why it’s important for us to find the funding in the next decade. This was something we discussed with the deputy chief of the European Investment Bank, of course, in the context of the green transition, with additional investments in rail also,” said the PM.

The railroad funding would come from the EU, while the roads funding would have to be secured by borrowing.