From: Belgrade Length 52.86 km | To: Požega | |
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Regions: Belgrade, Kolubara, Moravica, Zlatibor Major cities Belgrade, Obrenovac, Čačak, Požega | ||
Motorway A2 (Serbian: Аутопут А2 / Autoput A2), often called the Belgrade–Čačak motorway (Serbian: Аутопут Београд–Чачак / Autoput Beograd–Čačak) is a motorway in Serbia under construction and when finished it will span for approximately 151.63 kilometers (94.22 mi). It begins in Belgrade and runs southward to Požega. Also, there are considerations for attaching the motorway to future Belgrade–Bar motorway, thus way providing faster link with Montenegro.
Contents
The main reason for better road infrastructure among providing the faster link of the capital city with western Serbia and Montenegro, is to unburden heavily loaded Ibar Highway from Belgrade to Čačak, the most frequent and dangerous road in the country.
Several countries including Serbia are lobbying to list the route of Belgrade–Bar motorway, whose part the motorway A2 should be in the future, within Pan-European corridors, and it is frequently referred to as part of proposed Corridor XI (Serbian: Коридор 11 / Koridor XI), or 4B - an envisioned ferry/motorway corridor linking Bari, Bar, Belgrade and Bucharest.
Route description
The motorway is split in several sections:
Table's current progress status is as of 7 November 2016.
Development
The northernmost section from Belgrade (Surčin) to Obrenovac is the last contracted section and planned start of the construction is 2017 with 32 months construction period. Total value of 233.69 million USD for this section will be funded by Exim Bank of China. It will include 1800 meters long new bridge over river Sava. This section will be operated by China Communications Construction in partnership with domestic companies.
The section from Ub to Lajkovac with the total length of 12.5 kilometers, operated by Serbian companies "Planum" and "Putevi Srbije", was finished on 12 December 2014. Total value of 73 million euros was financed by the Government of Serbia.
Two sections of the motorway, Obrenovac - Ub and Lajkovac - Ljig (operated by Shandong Hi-Speed Group), with total length of around 50 kilometers, are planned to be finished by June 2017. These two sections are funded by 301 millions USD loan from Exim Bank of China and 32.7 million USD from the Government of Serbia. The main subcontractor for Shandong Hi-Speed Group at the section Lajkovac - Ljig is a Serbian construction company Energoprojekt holding.
On 6 April 2012, the government of Azerbaijan granted a 308 million euros loan to Serbia for 40.36 kilometers long section from Ljig to Preljina (town in the municipality of Čačak). The section was planned to be opened on 25 August 2016, but was postponed for two months due to the unfinished works in tunnels. According to Zorana Mihajlović, Serbian minister of construction, transportation and infrastructure, domestic subcontractor company that worked on these tunnels, Planum, unreasonably used older-age machines for the financial reasons, thus way breaking deadline for this section. On November 7, 2016, the section was officially opened for use.
The section from Preljina to Požega, with the total length of 30.96 kilometers was planned to start in the spring of 2014, but the construction never started for unknown reasons.
There was a lot of politics going on behind the planned route for the southern section of motorway from Požega to Boljare. More developed and populated Zlatibor region lobbied for route to go in parallel to Zlatibor Highway. However, minister Zorana Mihajlović, shut down the speculations in November 2015, saying that the section from Požega to the border with Montenegro is planned to go close to southern section of IB-21 highway via Arilje, Ivanjica and eventually Pešter plateau.
Trivia
For only 10 days after the section of the motorway Ljig–Preljina was opened, thieves have stolen around 2,000 meters of safety barriers along the road, as well as 20 manhole caps.
Construction gallery
Photos in this gallery represent only specific areas in the section from Ljig to Preljina, most of them within the municipality of Gornji Milanovac.