Reaching the sea in just 4 hours: See what the highway to Montenegro will look like VIDEO

According to the plans of the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, it will be completed in the next three years - with which Serbia will complete its part of the future Corridor 11, i.e. the Belgrade-South Adriatic route, which stretches for 269 kilometers and is an important part of the Trans-European Motorway (TEM), writes Kurir.

The route from Požega to Boljare will stretch along the valley of the Moravica River, between the slopes of Javor and Golija, across the Pešter Plateau to the border with Montenegro. The total length of this section is 106.3 kilometers, and it is divided into 11 parts.

As many as 72 bridges with a total length of 35 kilometers and 10 tunnels with a length of 16.88 kilometers will be built on the most demanding part of the route, from Požega to Duga Poljana.

The highway is designed with two lanes and one stop lane in each direction, with a predicted speed of 100 to 120 kilometers per hour. The route mostly extends outside the populated areas, except for smaller operations in the municipalities of Arilje and Ivanjica.

The section from Preljina to Požega

In the meantime, the section from Preljina to Požega, 30.9 kilometers long, was also completed, which shortens the journey from Belgrade to Požega to only 90 minutes. On that route, there are key infrastructure facilities, such as the Munjino brdo, Laz and Trbušani tunnels, and the highway connects Čačak, Lučane and Požega, as well as two districts - Moravica and Zlatibor districts.

The value of this section is estimated at around 450 million euros, and the section was opened on July 5 this year, as planned.

This route, which is extremely demanding to build, will make traveling much easier, so it will take only one hour and 30 minutes to get from the capital to Požega, and the journey to Zlatibor will take about two hours.

President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, pointed out that from 1945 to 2012, a total of 596 kilometers of highways were built in Serbia, and from 2012 till the present day, 609 kilometers, and these impressive kilometers of highways are adorned with two new tunnels, Munjino brdo and Laz, both over 2.5 kilometers long.

In the entire project, 35 bridges with a total length of 5,196 meters, four overpasses with a total length of 592 m were designed (three bridges on local roads after descending from level crossings with a total length of 180 meters).

Four overpasses were also designed as part of leveled intersections with a total length of 1,075m, namely — 13 bridges over 100 meters long, and the longest bridge 478 meters long, six bridges 25-100 m long, 16 single-span bridges 10-25 m long.

Construction of other sections of the highway

With the completion of the works on the Serbian side, attention is increasingly directed towards Montenegro, where preparations are underway for the construction of the second section of the highway, from Mateševo ​​to Andrijevica. This section is 21 kilometers long, and the planned construction time is five years. The cost estimate is around 550 million euros, and ten companies applied for the execution of the works in the recently completed tender.

Montenegrin Minister of Transport Maja Vukićević stated that the priority will be the selection of the most favorable and highest quality contractor, with full control of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. It is expected that the best bid will be selected during the summer, while the preparatory works could start in the second half of the year.

The financial structure of the project has already been significantly defined - 100 million euros have been provided as grants from the European Commission, while an additional 200 million euros of favorable credit has already been agreed with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The rest of the funds will be covered from the state budget.

When it comes to technical preparation, expropriation has been completed in 80 percent of the route to Trešnjevik, while the remaining part is planned to be completed by the time the contractor is introduced to the work. Public discussion on the impact of the project on the environment is currently underway, including the municipalities of Kolašin and Andrijevica.

If everything goes according to plan on both sides of the border, in the next few years the citizens of Serbia and Montenegro could travel for the first time on a modern highway from Belgrade to the Adriatic Sea.

Loops

This spatial plan determines the position of the following planned uneven intersections (loops), namely:

Unleveled intersection "Arilje" at the station km 150+300, as a connection with the existing state road IB order number 21, the municipal center of Arilje and the surrounding settlements and economic-industrial zones;

Unleveled intersection "Ivanjica" at the orientation station km 167+000, in function of the connection with the existing state road IB order number 21, the municipal center of Ivanjica and the surrounding settlements and economic-industrial zones;

Unleveled intersection "Medjurečje" at the orientation station km 185+800, in function of the connection with the existing state road IIA order number 197 and indirectly through it with the area of ​​the Golija Nature Park, as well as the existing state road IB order number 30 and further to the east and the Ibar gorge;

Unleveled intersection "Duga Poljana" at station km 220+800, in function of connection with the existing state road IB order number 29, and indirectly through it with the municipal center and the wider area of ​​Sjenica, the area of ​​the Special Nature Reserve "Uvac" and Novi Varoš in the west, i.e. with Tutin and Novi Pazar in the southeast;

Unleveled intersection "Karajukića Bunari" at the orientation station km 240+000, in function of the connection with the existing state road IIA order number 197 and the existing state road IIA order number 202 and indirectly through them with Sjenica in the northwest and Tutin and Novi Pazar in the east.

Rest areas and parking lots

In the highway corridor, the following facilities are planned for highway users: 

• service center "Arilje" at the station km 148+600 on both sides; 
• parking lot "Trešnjevica" at the orientation station km 161+600 on both sides; 
• parking lot "Ivanjica" at the orientation station km 181+500 on the left; 
• parking lot "Rokci" at the orientation station km 187+800 on the right; 
• parking lot "Brnjica" at the station km 217+600 on both sides; 
• rest area "Boljare" at the orientation station km 227+600 on both sides in the zone of the border crossing "Boljare"

The Belgrade-South Adriatic route, the document recalls, is a branch of the Trans-European Motorway (TEM) that connects the main route of the TEM (from Gdańsk to Athens and Istanbul) to the Adriatic Sea in the territory of the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro.

Within the primary network of roads, this road direction should take over the long-distance flows from the existing IB state roads No. 21 (Novi Sad-Valjevo-Užice-Bijelo Polje) and No. 22 (on the part Belgrade-Čačak), as well as the M-2 road (on the part Bijelo Polje-Podgorica-Adriatic Sea), according to the plan.

It is added that this corridor connects Central and Southwestern Serbia, and by connecting the port of Bar with the port of Belgrade on the Danube, it connects the Danube region with the Mediterranean.

Reaching Belgrade in less than four hours

The travel time from Podgorica to Belgrade in that case would be three and a half hours, and the length of the road would be 370 km.