July the 11th, 2025 – Zagreb is set to get a brand new 95-kilometre-long bypass according to a recent announcement from Croatian Motorways (Hrvatske autoceste).
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Hana Ivkovic Simicic writes, the future Zagreb 95-kilometre-long bypass will be a new, southern section for the Croatian capital. Croatian Motorways announced a tender worth 700,000 euros this week, through which it is seeking a company to prepare study documentation for the project. It will extend from the junction with the A2 motorway west of the City of Zagreb to the junction with the A4 motorway, which lies east of it.
As part of the Spatial and Traffic Study of the Road and Rail System of the Greater Area of the City of Zagreb, prepared back in 2007, the southern corridor of the new Zagreb bypass was also studied. In the concept of the traffic network, long-distance traffic will be relocated outside the city, so that it doesn’t place a burden the city’s road network. The primary goal of the new Zagreb 95-kilometre long bypass is to separate transit from city traffic and redirect it around the City of Zagreb – states the project terms of reference for this major undertaking.
The study documentation requires a complete analysis of the planned corridor of the new Zagreb bypass, the possibilities of connecting to the network of already constructed Croatian motorways, as well as the possibilities of connecting to the road network of the wider city area. It’s also necessary to conduct an analysis of the current state of development, since several facilities have been constructed in the planned motorway corridor throughout the period since the adoption of the Spatial Plan until today.
In the immediate vicinity of the new bypass corridor, the Spatial Plan of Zagreb County has outlined a corridor of a planned railway line for international traffic. That means that all analyses of the route, as well as the junctions and all facilities along the bypass route, must be carried out in coordination with Croatian Railways (Hrvatske zeljeznice). Variant solutions for the junction must also be developed, since the new toll collection system of Croatian Motorways allows for the construction of junctions of various layout shapes. The shape and position of the junction also need to be aligned with the railway corridor, as noted in the tender documentation.
It will be necessary to prepare a conceptual design with an estimate of the construction cost, conduct an analysis of the valid spatial plans, and also create a traffic model with traffic forecasts that will serve as a basis for selecting the optimal conceptual design for the new bypass. Data for the feasibility study will also need to be input. An environmental impact study for this project should also be prepared.
The motorway has been divided into three sections: section I from the junction with the A3 motorway to the junction with the A1 motorway at the Horvati interregional junction, section II from the Horvati junction to the Ivanić Grad junction, and section III from the Ivanić Grad junction to the Sveta Helena junction.
The new conceptual design of the future Zagreb 95-kilometre-long bypass includes the elaboration of the existing conceptual design, especially from the perspective of compliance with the corridor from the spatial plan and with the Master Plan of the Transport System of the City of Zagreb, Zagreb County and Krapina-Zagorje County. Construction cost estimates must be provided for all phases of the motorway construction.
On top of all of the aforementioned, the elaboration and harmonisation of all deviations along the route in relation to the Spatial Plan must be carried out.
