A11 (Croatia) - History

History

The Zagreb–Sisak motorway was defined as a priority traffic route by the Government of Croatia in Motorway development plan for 2005–2008 period. The route defined at the time fully complied with county development plans, except in a 4-kilometre (2.5 mi) segment south of the Zagreb bypass, which required changes of the spatial planning documents of the City of Zagreb and the Zagreb County. Hrvatske autoceste developed a preliminary study of the route, proposing to connect the A11 to Zagreb at the Zagreb bypass and the Sarajevska Road, requiring a tunnel below Zagreb railway shunting yard. The plan also requires moving the A3 motorway Buzin interchange approximately 2.5 kilometres (1.6 miles) to the west. The plans refer to the moved interchange as Sveta Klara interchange. That scheme planned completion of the motorway to the south of Velika Gorica by 2007, to Lekenik by 2008 and later on to Sisak. At the time cost of the first section between Velika Gorica and Buševec was estimated at 328 million kuna (44.3 million euro), and the extension to Lekenik was valued at 586 million kuna (79.1 million euro). In February and March 2006, Government of Croatia performed tender procedure for the 8.3-kilometre (5.2 mi) northernmost section of the A11 spanning the Jakuševec interchange and the Velika Gorica jug exit. At the time, cost the section was estimated at 770 million kuna (104 million euro) and the construction works were scheduled to be completed by June 15, 2007. On April 4, commencement of the works between the Velika Gorica jug interchange and Hrašće Turopoljsko was announced. The contract was won by a joint venture comprising Viadukt, Hidroelektra, Konstruktor and Strabag, at a price of 202 million kuna (27.3 million euro) without VAT, and the works were scheduled to be completed by June 15, 2007.

The first indication of delays came in March 2007, when the national government started trading accusations with authorities of the Zagreb County. The government accused the county authorities that they are willfully slowing down the project as the county failed to adopt required amendments of their spatial planning documents. In turn, the county accused the government that the project is out of funds and that accusations levied by the central government were intended to disguise lack of money. This situation led to announcements made in 2008, that the motorway shall be built from direction of Sisak, however that was not immediately feasible as land was not purchased and construction design had to be adjusted. Even so, the works were announced to start north of Sisak at the beginning of 2009. The plan to start construction in 2009 from Sisak were confirmed in July 2008, when Hrvatske autoceste deined rumors that the route may be shortened to the northern outskirts of Sisak, instead of Mošćenica suburb of Petrinja located immediately to the south of Sisak. By August 2008, planning of a tunnel under Zagreb shunting yard was abandoned in favor of a viaduct extending to the north of the planned Jakuševec interchange. Construction of the latter started shortly afterwards, but as of September 2011 it is still in progress, at an ostensibly slow pace.

On May 9, 2009, the first section of the A11 motorway was completed and opened to traffic, spanning Velika Gorica and Buševec exits. The section is 9 kilometres (5.6 miles) long, and contains 6 bridges, 4 flyovers, 2 wildlife crossings, a viaduct and an underpass. Total cost of the section was reported to be 657 million kuna (88.8 million euro). At the opening ceremony, it was announced that the entire route between Zagreb and Mošćenica shall be completed by 2011. In May 2009, new construction contracts were made for the Buševec–Sisak section of the route, only to be cancelled in September of the same year. The cancellation was attributed to change of funding sources and models, and new contracts were announced for November 2009.

Since the opening of the first A11 motorway section, the project was criticized by political opposition parties as excessively expensive, citing estimated cost of 14.8 million euro per kilometer and comparing it to cost of somewhat more than 4 million euro per kilometer cost of the A1 motorway to Split. Hrvatske autoceste, operator of the motorway, defended the price as a result of unfavorable, silty ground along the route requiring large quantities of backfill and transportation of the backfill material. Furthermore Hrvatske autoceste denied claims of cost per kilometer of the A11 and the A1. The company which operates both of the motorways claimed that the average price of the A1 motorway was 7.1 million euro per kilometer and that the average cost per kilometer of the A11 stands at 11.3 million euro, further citing high transport cost of the backfill material caused by remote location of the closest quarry which is approximately 100 kilometres (62 miles) away. Construction of the A11 motorway was also criticized as an example of interference of politics in road construction, where construction sites are perceived as generally serving as ribbon-cutting ceremony sites during election campaigns.