GENERAL INFORMATION
The Republic of Croatia has an extension of 56542km2 and a population of 4,4 millions of inhabitants. Croatia's capital city, Zagreb, has population of 779145 inhabitants and is located in the northern part of the country. Croatia's territory includes 1246 nearby islands in the Adriatic Sea, of which only 67 are inhabited. Coastline is 5835 km long.
Croatia is mainly a tourist, industrial and agricultural country. Its motorization ratio is 310 light vehicles on 1000 inhabitants (in 2004).
The total length of the public road's network is 29151 km, out of which 1243 km are motorways, 6810 km of national roads and 21098 km of 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 River: Rhine-Main-Danube
- X Ljubljana-Zagreb-Beograd
- Xa Graz-Maribor and 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 Program from 2001 to 2004 when 402,1 km of motorway was built. It also continued it the next four-year Program for the period from 2005 -2008 when the network prolonged for additional 258,4 km. Today Croatia has a network which comprises 1243 km of motorways.
LEGAL FRAMEWORK
In 1990 Croatian Parliament adopted a first Concession Act (Official Gazette 18/90.) while the second was adopted in 1992 (Official Gazette 89/92) and last revision was adopted in 2008 (Official Gazette 125/2008). 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 Agreements 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 1243 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) 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 source of financing of motorways (Official Gazette 180/2004). It also stipulates that tolling system and toll levels are defined by motorway companies and are subject to final approval of the Government.
All motorways, semi-motorways and some facilities (bridge) 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 0,050 EUR/km.
Toll is calculated on distance related basis and according to the respective vehicle group (IA – IV). All vehicle classes pay toll.
Toll is paid directly by users and methods availabe are following:
- Cash (KN, EUR), credit/debit cards
- SMART cards
- Electronic toll collection (ETC)
FUTURE TRENDS
Following the two previous four-year periods marked by speedy and intensive motorway construction in the Republic of Croatia, in the current 2009 - 2012 period, 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 Programs, Croatia is to have 1372 km of motorways by 2013 and in later stage the motorway network will result in 1636 km in total.
In the following 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. Goal is also to boost greater use and efficiency of automated toll collection methods such as ETC and SMART cards.
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