The highways in Slovenia are the central state roads in Slovenia and are divided into

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

s (, ''AC'') and expressways (, ''HC''). Motorways are dual carriageways with a speed limit of . They have white-on-green road signs as in Italy, Croatia and other countries nearby. Expressways are secondary roads, also dual carriageways, usually without a hard shoulder. They have a speed limit of and have white-on-blue road signs. Highways and accessory structures in Slovenia are managed by the state-owned

Motorway Company in the Republic of Slovenia The Motorway Company in the Republic of Slovenia (, DARS) is a joint-stock company in Slovenia that operates and maintains the Slovenian motorway network and the related infrastructure. It was established by the Republic of Slovenia as a public e ...

(, acronym ''DARS'') established in 1994. , DARS manages and maintains 625 kilometres of motorways and expressways, 143 kilometres of ramps, 22 kilometres of junctions, 27 kilometres of rest areas and 41 kilometres of other roads. Since 1 June 2008, highway users in Slovenia are required to buy a

vignette Vignette may refer to: * Vignette (entertainment), a sketch in a sketch comedy * Vignette (graphic design), decorative designs in books (originally in the form of leaves and vines) to separate sections or chapters * Vignette (literature), short, i ...

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Motorways

Expressways

Planned

History

The first highway in Slovenia was opened in 1972, connecting Vrhnika and

Postojna Postojna (; , ) is a town in the traditional region of Inner Carniola, from Trieste, in southwestern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Postojna.

. Constructed under the reformist-minded Communist government of Stane Kavčič, their development plan envisioned a modern highway network spanning Slovenia and connecting the republic to Italy and Austria. After the reformist fraction of the Communist Party of Slovenia was deposed in the early 1970s, the expansion of the Slovenian highway network came to a halt. In 1994, the new country started a National Motorway Construction Programme (, NPIA), effectively re-using the old Communist plans. Since then, 528 km of motorways, expressways and similar roads have been completed, easing automotive transport across the country and providing a much better road service between eastern and western Europe. This has encouraged the development of transportation and export industries. According to the Slovenian Motorway Company Act valid since December 2010, the construction and building of highways in Slovenia is carried out and financed by private companies, primarily the Motorway Company in the Republic of Slovenia (planned to become at least partially private), while the strategic planning and the acquisition of land for their course is carried out and financed by the state. The highways are owned by DARS. The apparent slower tempo of construction of Slovenian highways in the north–south direction, in comparison to the east–west direction, has been the source of some speculation in

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n media, because Croatia had built many highways northwards (toward Slovenia), yet the other side has not yet followed suit, thereby impacting the connections of Croatia with western Europe through Slovenia. This is despite some agreements on the official government level. In particular this refers to the roads between

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

/Koper and

Istria Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; ; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian: ; ; ) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. Located at th ...

Rijeka Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...

, the route Ljubljana-

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

, as well as Maribor-Zagreb.Ivan Dadić: ''Hrvatska srlja u brzu gradnju autoceste prema Mariboru i dovodi svoje građane u Zagorju u neugodan položaj iako Slovenci barem idućih pet godina neće napraviti autocestu od Maribora do granice. Valja reći da na tom području, osim na granici, nikada nema gužve tako da se s razlogom treba zapitati čemu sve to. Jedan od najvećih promašaja je i autocesta od Rijeke do prijelaza Rupe – Pasjak koju Slovenija neće nastaviti najmanje za idućih deset godina.'' translated: "Croatia is rushing into a quick construction of a highway towards Maribor and puts its citizens in

Zagorje Hrvatsko Zagorje (; Croatian Zagorje; ''zagorje'' is Croatian language, Croatian for 'backland' or 'behind the hills') is a cultural region in northern Croatia, traditionally separated from the country's capital Zagreb by the Medvednica mount ...

in an awkward position even though the Slovenes will not construct the highway from Maribor to the border for at least the next five years. In this area, except for the border, there is never a traffic jam, so this is really questionable. One of the biggest failures is the highway from Rijeka to the border crossing in Rupa-Pasjak which Slovenia will not continue for at least the next ten years." The officials from the Slovenian Ministry of Transportation have rejected claims that their road construction is lagging behind Croatia, saying that they are an exaggeration, as their overall kilometers of highway per person ratio and other statistics are favorable. In 2009, the first of the four planned highway connections was completed, the A2 Ljubljana-Obrežje towards Zagreb. A second one, A4 Maribor-Gruškovje towards Zagreb, was completed in 2018. , construction of the Slovenian sections of both the future Pula-Koper and Rijeka-Postojna motorways is on hold, despite connecting sections on the Croatian side having long been completed.

References

External links