August the 5th, 2025 – The most modern Croatian motorway section so far should be put into function and opened to traffic by the end of 2026.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, what is currently the largest construction site in the entire country should finally see the tools put down by the end of next year. By then, the bridge over the Mirna River and the Limska Draga viaduct will have been duplicated. The motorway to Matulji will have also been built, and the opening of the renovated first tube of the Učka Tunnel is expected in mid-September, HRT announced recently.
The old tube of the Učka Tunnel, which is being completely renovated to meet high traffic standards, will be open to traffic again in September. Then, traffic will finally be distributed between both tubes, the renovated old one and the newly built one.
A total of 400 people and 54 subcontractors were engaged over the course of ten months of extensive work. Those works were constantly carried out in two shifts, and occasionally in a third, Luka Rigo, a construction site engineer, told HRT.
Traffic running along the Učka Tunnel – Matulji section is only occasionally slowed down. There are no longer any long waits or traffic lights. The full-profile route of the most modern Croatian motorway section from the tunnel to Matulji was actually drawn into spatial plans way back in the 1960s.
“We still believe that we’ll be able to open the most modern Croatian motorway section by the end of 2026. It will connect Istria with Kvarner and enable travel from Pula to Zagreb in less than two and a half hours,” said Christian Santaleza, technical director of Bina Istra.
In parallel, the plan is also to open the aforementioned new bridge over the Mirna River and the Limska Draga viaduct. The project, worth a massive 200 million euros in total, will mark the completion of the construction of the Istrian Y, which began back in 1981.
