A 32.5 kilometre long newly-built section of a future motorway that will be running from Beli Manastir near the Hungarian border via Osijek to Svilaj on the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina was formally opened to traffic by Prime Minister Ivo Sanader on Friday.
The cost of construction of the Osijek-Djakovo stretch was HRK 2.2 billion exclusive of Value Added Tax. The work was carried out by 15 contractors, which also built three viaducts, eight bridges, 17 overpasses and one underpass, as well as two rest stops and the Traffic Control Centre.
The Beli Manastir-Osijek-Svilaj motorway will be 88.6 kilometres long and is a part of the pan-European transport corridor 5c stretching from Budapest to the southern Croatian Adriatic port of Ploce.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Sanader said events of this kind confirmed that such large infrastructure projects were feasible even in time of a global economic crisis. He said that construction of the motorway towards Beli Manastir and Svilaj would continue.
Deputy Parliament Speaker Vladimir Seks said that by building the new stretch of the A5 motorway, the government delivered on its promise to connect the eastern and the coastal part of the country with a highway and to include eastern Croatia into pan-European transport corridors.
Transport and Infrastructure Minister Bozidar Kalmeta recalled that 501 kilometres of highway had been built in Croatia since 2004.
The CEO of the Hrvatske Autoceste highway construction and maintenance company, Jurica Prskalo, said that 70 per cent of the Croatian part of Corridor 5c was now completed and that Croatia now had 1,224 kilometres of highway.
(Hina)