European Route E73 - History

History

See also: International E-road network and Pan-European corridors

UNECE was formed in 1947, and their first major act to improve transportation was a joint UN declaration no. 1264, the Declaration on the Construction of Main International Traffic Arteries, signed in Geneva on September 16, 1950, which defined the first E-road network. This declaration was amended several times before November 15, 1975, when it was replaced by the European Agreement on Main International Traffic Arteries or "AGR", which set up a route numbering system and improved standards for roads in the list. The AGR went through several changes, with the last one, as of 2011, in 2008. Reorganization of the E-roads network of 1975 and 1983 redefined the E73 designation previously associated with Cologne–Hamme road and assigned it to Budapest–Osijek–Sarajevo–Metković route.

The entire E73 route was given further importance in June 1997 at the Pan-European Transport Conference in Helsinki, when the section was made a part of the Pan-European Corridor Vc, spanning Budapest and Metković via Osijek and Sarajevo. This event spurred modernization of the route in all the countries where it is located, and since 1997s, one third of the route, previously developed as a two-lane road only, was upgraded to the motorway standards, with plans to upgrade the remainder of the route as well.

The first Hungarian motorway section along the M6/E73 route was completed between Érd and Dunaújváros in 2006 after the Pan-European Corridor Vc was given development priority following the Helsinki conference. In 2008, the new motorway section was connected to the M0 Budapest ring motorway, and in 2010, the M6 was extended to Bóly. The final section of the motorway to the Croatian border is planned to extend to a new border crossing at Ivándárda, where the M6 shall connect to the Croatian motorway network. In Croatia, the first motorway section completed along the E73 route was the Sredanci–Đakovo section of the A5, completed in 2007, which was extended further to Osijek in 2009. As of August 2011, the A5 is scheduled to be extended north across Drava River to Beli Manastir and the Branjin Vrh border crossing to Hungary where it shall connect to the M6. Also, the A5 is planned to be extended south of the Sredanci interchange to Sava River and a new border crossing to Bosnia and Herzegovina near Svilaj, where the A5 shall connect to the Bosnia and Herzegovina A1 motorway, across a new bridge across Sava River. Similarly, the A10 motorway is planned to connect Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Croatian motorway system through the A1 motorway and the port of Ploče. The segment of the route through Bosnia and Herzegovina is largely in various stages of planning and development, especially those sections adjacent to the single existing stretch of the A1 motorway near Sarajevo and to planned sections of the Croatian A5 and A10 motorways.