The First Sector of Montenegro’s New Highway Finally Opens

It might have taken several years to build and surpassed the original deadline of May 209, but finally on the 13th July 2022 the Priority Section of Montenegro’s first Highway was opened, stretching around 41.5km from Smokovac near Podgorica to Matesevo near Kolasin. This section of the highway, partially built by a Chinese construction firm, stretches across Mountains whilst passing through 16 tunnels and 20 bridges. The full highway, once completed should be around 100 miles and will actually connect the resort of Bar in Montenegro to Boljare in Serbia.

It might have taken several years to build and surpassed the original deadline of May 209, but finally on the 13th July 2022 the Priority Section of Montenegro’s first Highway was opened, stretching around 41.5km from Smokovac near Podgorica to Matesevo near Kolasin. This section of the highway, partially built by a Chinese construction firm, stretches across Mountains whilst passing through 16 tunnels and 20 bridges. The full highway, once completed should be around 100 miles and will actually connect the resort of Bar in Montenegro to Boljare in Serbia.

Even though the old mountain road offers fabulous views, it’s quite a difficult and complex journey, especially for foreign visitors who aren’t familiar with the landscape, plus on top of that the new highway will save significant amounts of travel time. A state of the art telecommunication centre will also add to the safety aspect, as it will receive real time data from over 560 cameras, designed to instantly report incidents as soon as they happen. If you are a foreign visitor, don’t worry though, the new highway will still offer amazing mountain and country views…

Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic, Charge d'Affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Montenegro Hua Yafang and representatives of the China Road and Bridge Corporation attended the opening ceremony and afterwards the Prime Minister Abazovic mentioned that ‘The highway is the beginning of the permanent connection of Montenegro with the rest of the world, opening up new opportunities for investment and growth’.

Thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative as well as the China & Central & Eastern European Countries Co-operation mechanism it highlights a symbol of friendship between Montenegro & China, whilst also being the single, most important infrastructure project in the history of Montenegro.
In order to help maintain the running costs of the highway there will be a fee of €3.50 for cars, via the toll booth and the maximum speed on the highway to ensure safety will be limited to 100 kilometres per hour.

13.08.2022