PreviousNext

Croatia

GENERAL INFORMATION

The Republic of Croatia has an extension of 56,542 km2 and a population of 4.3 million inhabitants. Croatia's capital city, Zagreb, has population of 779,145 inhabitants and is located in the northern part of the country. Croatia's territory includes 1,246 nearby islands in the Adriatic Sea, of which only 67 are inhabited. Coastline is 5,835 km long. Croatia is mainly a tourist, industrial and agricultural country. Its motorization ratio is 381 light vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants (in 2015).
The total length of the public road's network is 26,867 km, out of which 1,313 km are motorways, 6,913 km are national roads and 18,640 km are regional and local roads.

The Pan-European corridors passing through the territory of the Republic of Croatia are the following:

  • Vb Budapest-Zagreb-Rijeka
  • Vc Budapest-Osijek-(Sarajevo)-Ploce
  • VII Danube : Rhin -Main-Danube
  • X Ljubljana-Zagreb-Belgrade
  • Xa Graz-Maribor et Zagreb

HISTORY

First motorway sections in former Yugoslavia were planned and designed during the 1960s and built at the beginning of the 1970s by the State. First motorway stretches opened to traffic were Zagreb - Karlovac and Rijeka - Grobnik (48 km). Motorways in Croatia were planned in directions from the capital cities toward the Adriatic Sea.

Until 1991 additional 305 km of motorways were opened to traffic. The period from 1990 to 1998 was marked by very few construction projects but intensive production of studies and design documents. Accelerated construction began with the first four-year Public Road Construction and Maintenance Programme from 2001 to 2004 when 402,1 km of motorway was built. It also continued it the next four-year Programme for the period 2005 -2008 when the network prolonged for additional 258,4 km. Last two Public Road Construction and Maintenance Programmes related to the periods 2009-2012 and 2013-2016 brought a slow down in construction of new motorway stretches. Today Croatia has a network which comprises 1,313 km of motorways.

LEGAL FRAMEWORK

In 1990 Croatian Parliament adopted a first Concession Act (Official Gazette 18/90), while the second one was adopted in 1992 (Official Gazette 89/92) and third one in 2008 (Official Gazette 125/08), the last adopted version is dated 2012 (Official Gazette 143/2012), whilst new revision is under procedure. Concession Act constituted basis for granting concession for motorway construction. Since 1991 different Croatian Governments have decided to apply various ownership models in building a modern motorway network (public companies/private companies) among which was also a concession model with public-private partnership, and have decided to grant a part of the motorway network to concession companies by signing a Concession Agreement with them mainly for 32 years. Regardless the difference in ownership models, all motorway projects implement toll collection.

In Croatia there are four motorway companies in charge of motorway management and they all together operate the network of 1,313 km of high standard motorways.

As mentioned above, companies are different in sense of ownership structure but they all have the same mission to finance, build, operate and maintain the motorway network for which they are responsible.

BINA-ISTRA d.d.

(established in 1995, private-public concession company)

AUTOCESTA RIJEKA – ZAGREB d.d.

(established in 1997, concession company 100% owned by the Government of the Republic of Croatia)

HRVATSKE AUTOCESTE d.o.o.

(established in 2001, public company 100% owned by the Government of the Republic of Croatia)

AUTOCESTA ZAGREB-MACELJ d.o.o.

(established in 2003, private-public concession company)

Completion of the existing motorway network has resulted in huge improvement in connecting the Croatian coast and inland as well as integration in European system of transportation and corridors. Besides their contribution to tourism development and better flow of people and goods, motorways also provide higher safety and comfort to their users.

TOLLING

As to finance the motorway construction and management already since opening to traffic of the first motorway stretch in 1972 Zagreb-Karlovac (A6), toll collection was a key element for financial closing of the project. Therefore tolling has a strong tradition which continued to be essential in motorway projects after independence of the Croatian State in 1991.

Public Roads Act stipulates that toll is applied on motorways and facilities, as defined by the Government, and that toll is a source of financing of motorways (Official Gazette 130/13). It also stipulates that the tolling system and toll rates are defined by motorway companies and are subject to final approval of the Government.

All motorways, semi-motorways and some facilities (bridges and tunnels) in Croatia are tolled. Level of toll depends also on construction, operation and maintenance costs of one specific motorway or facility. Average toll fee per kilometre for light vehicles is 0.063 EUR/km.

Toll is calculated on a distance-related basis and according to the respective vehicle group (IA – IV). All vehicle classes are subject to tolling.

Toll is paid directly by users and payment methods available are the following:
  • Cash (KN, EUR), credit/debit cards
  • SMART cards
  • Electronic toll collection (ETC)

FUTURE TRENDS

Following the two four-year periods  2001-2004 and 2005-2008 marked by speedy and intensive motorway construction in the Republic of Croatia, in the 2009 - 2012  and 2013-2016 periods, the priorities have been given, due to limited funding possibilities, to the completion of sections started in the previous periods, maintenance and preservation of the already built motorway network, quality related improvements, and construction of new roadside service facilities.

According to the Public Road Construction and Maintenance Programmes, Croatia is to have 1,372 km of motorways by 2017 and, at a later stage, the motorway network will result in 1,419 km in total.

In the next couple of years, priority will be given to common actions in order to improve safety on motorways and raise awareness of drivers responsability.

Regarding the technologies implemented, three operators, HAC, ARZ and BINA have introduced the ETC system for all vehicle classes. It is expected in the future to ensure full interoperability between all four concessionaires as to enable to the users as safe and comfortable travelling as possible and finally to prepare for the EETS service.

Goal is also to boost greater use and efficiency of automated toll collection methods such as ETC and SMART cards.

NETWORK

Click here to download the map of the Croatian motorway network as of 31 December 2022 - JPG format

STATISTICS

                    
                                     
Data as of 31/12/2022 (source: 2023 Statistical Bulletin):

Companies Km   Toll revenues (VAT & other taxes excluded)
3 1341,1   Euros (million) 426,45
         
Traffic (Average daily)   Payment means
Light vehicles 16177   Toll stations 109
Heavy vehicles 2634   Toll lanes 753
Total 18811   ETC lanes or mixed lanes 503
      ETC subscribers 565247
Services      
Rest areas 124      
Services areas (with petrol stations) 75      
Restaurants 32      
Hotels 8