July the 23rd, 2025 – Could this be the end of the burdensome traffic jams we’ve all become so used to on this section of road? The A1 Zagreb-Karlovac motorway is set to get a third lane.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the A1 Zagreb-Karlovac motorway is often full of traffic heading in both directions, and a third lane will likely remedy the issue. The plan is for a tender to be issued for the expansion of this section of the motorway by the end of this year. Over a million vehicles were travelling along Croatian motorways last weekend. A significant part of this traffic entered the motorway via the Lučko toll station near Zagreb, according to Večernji list.
As Večernji list reported, Croatian Motorways recently opened a preliminary consultation procedure, which will be followed by a public tender for the execution of the aforementioned works. There has been talk for many years about the A1 Zagreb-Karlovac motorway getting a third traffic lane to relieve it, but they remained just talks. Now, a preliminary consultation could be issued by the end of this year, as an introduction to the start of work on that project as well. It is reportedly planned that this project will also be presented as part of an investment in improving military mobility, i.e. that these costs will also be included in the presentation of achieving the goal that Croatia has taken on within NATO.
“Drivers know that the A1 Zagreb-Karlovac motorway is connected to the A3 motorway from Slavonia in both directions, the A4 motorway and, more recently, the A11 motorway from the east. Eight lanes of traffic are reduced to two lanes and, unfortunately, traffic jams are inevitable,” said Hrvoje Ordulj, director of the Croatian Motorways Traffic Sector, for HRT. “People usually have the impression that tolls slow down traffic, but even tolls play no role here,” he added.
Traffic along the country’s motorways in the summer months is up to 60 percent higher than in the rest of the year. “The motorway was constructed back in 1972 and was designed for the volume of traffic at the time, but today the situation is different. We’re witnessing that even outside of tourist-heavy weekends, just because of the traffic of Croatian vehicles, of which there are about 2.5 million registered, this road simply does not have enough capacity for a fluid flow of traffic,” emphasised traffic expert Krunoslav Ormuž.
