The A3 motorway () is a major motorway in Croatia spanning . The motorway connects Zagreb, the nation's capital, to the historical Slavonia region of Croatia and a number of cities along the Sava River. It represents a major east–west transportation corridor in Croatia and a significant part of the Pan-European Corridor X, serving as a transit route between the European Union states and the Balkans. Apart from Zagreb, where the A3 motorway comprises a considerable part of the Zagreb bypass, the motorway runs near a number of significant Croatian cities.
The motorway consists of two traffic lanes and an emergency lane in each driving direction, separated by a central reservation. All intersections of the A3 motorway are grade separated, and the motorway comprises several large stack and cloverleaf interchanges at junctions with four other motorways in Croatia: A1, A2, A4 and A5. There is a cloverleaf interchange is on the A3 route, where the A11 motorway is scheduled to branch off. The route comprises a large number of bridges and culverts, but has no tunnels because it runs through plains. The Sava River Bridge is the most significant structure on the A3. Currently, there are 21 exits and 18 rest areas operating along the route. A large part of the motorway is tolled using a ticket system; one section uses an open toll collection system. The Zagreb bypass sections are not tolled. The toll is charged according to vehicle classification in Croatia. The A3 motorway is operated by Hrvatske autoceste.
Construction of the six-lane motorway began in 1977, initially as the Zagreb bypass, then continued in the 1980s as an expansion of the existing two-lane road between Zagreb and Belgrade. The construction was suspended in the first part of the 1990s, due to the Croatian War of Independence, and resumed in 1996. Construction of the entire route was completed in 2006; further development entails new exits, new rest areas and the reconstruction of the existing motorway. The construction cost of the A3 motorway is estimated at 7 billion Croatian kuna (approximately 958.9 million euro).
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Route description The A3 motorway () is a major east–west motorway in Croatia connecting the capital of the country, Zagreb, to the Slavonia region, where the motorway follows a route parallel to the Sava River and further on to Serbian and Slovenian motorway networks. As a part of the road network of Croatia, it represents a part of European route E70 Bordeaux–Turin–Ljubljana–Zagreb–Belgrade–Bucharest. The motorway has facilitated accelerated economic development in the regions it connects. The motorway also connects to a number of other motorways in Croatia (from the west to the east): the A2 at the Jankomir interchange, the A1 at Lučko interchange, the A11 at Jakuševec, the A4 at Ivanja Reka and the A5 at the Sredanci interchange.
The motorway spans between the Bregana border crossing, located near Samobor, to Slovenia and the Bajakovo border crossing to Serbia, east of Županja. It represents the shortest and the most comfortable transit traffic route between Slovenia, northern Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and southern Germany to the west; and Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Greece, and Turkey to the east. The route serves Sisak via the D36; Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina via the D5 and Stara Gradiška border crossing; Osijek via the A5; and Vinkovci via the D55. The A3 motorway route is complete since no extensions or alterations to the route are planned by applicable legislation.
The A3 motorway consists of two traffic lanes and an emergency lane in each driving direction along its entire length. As of September 2010, the motorway has 21 interchanges, providing access to numerous towns and cities and the Croatian state road network. Almost all of the existing interchanges are trumpet interchanges, except for Lučko, which is a stack interchange, and Jankomir, Kosnica, Ivanja Reka and Sredanci, which are cloverleaf interchanges. The motorway follows Pan-European Corridor X, and forms junctions with Pan-European Corridors Vb and Vc within Croatia.
An automatic traffic monitoring and guidance system is in place along the motorway. It consists of measuring, control and signaling devices, located in zones where driving conditions may vary—at interchanges, near viaducts, bridges, and in zones where fog is known to occur. The system comprises variable traffic signs used to communicate changing driving conditions, possible restrictions and other information to motorway users.
There are numerous rest areas along the motorway, providing various types of services ranging from simple parking spaces and restrooms to filling stations, restaurants and motels. The A3 motorway is operated by Hrvatske autoceste, the state-owned company tasked with the management, construction, and maintenance of Croatian motorways.
Zagreb suburban interchanges
The route between Bobovica and Ivanja Reka interchanges (inclusive) serves as a part of Zagreb bypass, and it is therefore not tolled. The A3 section of the bypass also comprises junctions to a number of other motorways: the A1 at the Lučko interchange, the A2 at the Jankomir interchange, the A11 motorway at the Jakuševec interchange, and the A4 at the Ivanja Reka interchange. Two interchanges east of Zagreb, Rugvica and Križ, have recently been built to fill in gaps between the Ivanja Reka, Ivanić-Grad and Popovača interchanges, respectively. Even though the sections east of Rugvica are not parts of Zagreb bypass proper (they are tolled), the area has recently shown a rise in the population as it comprises several Zagreb suburbs and commuter towns. The consequent increase of commuter traffic volume, overall increase of the motorway transit traffic and plans for construction of a Sava River port in Rugvica warranted construction of the additional interchanges.
The A3 section of Zagreb bypass is currently the busiest section of the Croatian motorway network, with annual average daily traffic (AADT) volume exceeding 40,000 vehicles, leading to congestion of the six-lane bypass at peak hours, especially during the summer, when tourist traffic adds to the congestion. The mainline toll plazas at Bobovica and Ivanja Reka can both become bottlenecks at such times. The alternative to the bypass is going through the city via Ljubljanska, Zagrebačka and Slavonska avenues. Despite being a shorter and a more direct route, those avenues are much more congested than the bypass at rush hours and they contain at-grade intersections and traffic lights at some of their junctions.
Toll
The A3 is a partially tolled motorway based on the vehicle classification in Croatia. The westernmost section of the motorway, spanning the Bobovica interchange and the Bregana border crossing, is tolled at Bregana toll plaza using an open toll collection system; the motorway sections east of Ivanja Reka interchange are tolled using a closed toll collection system, integrated with the A5 motorway as the two connect at the Sredanci interchange, forming a unified toll collection system. As of October 2010, Bregana toll plaza charges 5.00 kuna (0.68 euro) to passenger cars and 20.00 kuna (2.74 euro) to semi-trailer trucks. The toll charged along the A3 route between Ivanja Reka and Lipovac varies depending on the distance travelled and ranges from 3.00 kuna (0.41 euro) to 105.00 kuna (14.38 euro) for passenger cars and 10.00 kuna (1.37 euro) to 350.00 kuna (47.95 euro) for semi-trailer trucks. The toll is payable in either Croatian kuna or euros and by major credit cards, debit cards and a number of prepaid toll collection systems, including various types of smart cards issued by the motorway operator and ENC—an electronic toll collection (ETC) system which is shared at most motorways in Croatia and provides drivers with discounted toll rates for dedicated lanes at toll plazas.
The toll collected by Hrvatske autoceste along the A3 motorway from January to August 2009 was reported to comprise the largest proportion of the total toll revenue collected by the company for the period: 889.8 million kuna (approximately 121.9 million euro). Even though this figure is not further decomposed into the individual sections of motorway, it is clear from the traffic volume data analysis that the largest portion of the toll revenue is collected on the sections between Zagreb and Slavonski Brod, and especially on those sections closest to the Ivanja Reka interchange.
Summertime and holiday queues at the Ivanja Reka mainline toll plaza can be considerable, a problem exacerbated during the usual weekend-to-weekend tourist stays at Croatia's coastal resorts. In such conditions, motorway users are advised to use the Rugvica and Ivanić Grad exits ahead of the Ivanja Reka interchange to avoid the queues. As of October 2010, the westbound transit traffic approaching the Ivanja Reka interchange must exit the tolled motorway network, since the existing Zagreb bypass is not tolled, and then re-enter another tolled motorway. There are plans for the outer Zagreb bypass to be integrated into the tolled motorway network as the ultimate solution for congestion at the Ivanja Reka toll plaza. That will require reconstruction of the Ivanić Grad interchange east of the Ivanja Reka toll plaza.
History
Brotherhood and Unity Highway
A modern highway connecting Zagreb and Belgrade was originally designed in the late 1940s, and construction began on April 1, 1948. A substantial portion of the work was carried out by youth from Yugoslavia and abroad through youth work actions. Nearly 300,000 youth, including Yugoslav army soldiers, took part in the construction. The road spanning the two cities, called Brotherhood and Unity Highway before the 1990s, was completed and officially opened on July 27, 1950. Despite being called a motorway (), it was a single carriageway, two-lane road with all of its intersections at-grade. Due to a shortage of construction material, the wearing course was executed in various materials—mostly concrete slabs, with some asphalt concrete sections and even some cobblestone-covered sections.
The road was originally designed to carry approximately 9,000 vehicles per day, and the original construction plans provided for subsequent conversion of the road into a four-lane motorway. In 1971, as the road gradually became congested, the plans to build the motorway on the route were approved by the Parliament of the Socialist Republic of Croatia. Unlike the other two motorway plans approved by the Croatian government, Zagreb–Split and Zagreb–Rijeka, which were cancelled after the suppression of the Croatian Spring, the Zagreb–Belgrade motorway plans remained in place and an expansion of the existing motorway into a dual-carriageway, six-lane motorway with exclusively grade-separated intersections proceeded. The additional carriageway was to be built south of the existing road, which was in turn to be widened to accommodate two traffic lanes and an emergency lane.
Prewar construction and wartime use Construction of the A3 motorway in Croatia in its present form started in 1977, when the first six-lane (including emergency lanes) sections were constructed as a part of the Zagreb bypass. In 1979, the section connecting the Jankomir and Lučko interchanges was the first to be completed. The section between the Lučko and Ivanja Reka interchanges was opened in 1981, marking the completion of the A3 section of the Zagreb bypass. Unlike the remainder of the motorway, which was constructed by widening the existing road and adding the additional carriageway, these two sections were built entirely from scratch.