European Route E73 - Route Description

Route Description

See also: M6 motorway (Hungary), A5 (Croatia), A1 (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and A10 (Croatia)

The European route E73 is a part of the International E-road network, 702 km (436 mi) long, connecting parts of Hungary and Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Adriatic Sea coast near the port of Ploče. The route is a Class A intermediate north-south road, consisting of 275 km (171 mi) of motorways, and a substantial proportion of two-lane roads with at-grade intersections. The E73 starts at the Budapest ring motorway, providing connection to the Hungarian motorway network, as well as the European routes E60, E71 and E75, at an interchange with the M6 motorway taking the E73 route south, past Dunaújváros and Szekszárd towards Bóly, where the motorway (as of August 2011) terminates, and the E73 switches to routes 57 and then 56 past Mohács to Udvar/Duboševica border crossing where the route crosses to Croatia. The Hungarian section of the E73 is 196 kilometres (122 miles) long, and all but the last 20 kilometres (12 miles) has been upgraded to the motorway standards. The final section of the motorway to the Croatian border is planned to extend to a new border crossing at Ivándárda.

The E73 route through croatia starts at Duboševica border crossing, following the D7 state road to Beli Manastir and Osijek. In Beli Manastir, there is a junction with the European route E662, also signposted as the D212. The D7 road carries the E73 through Osijek, to the southern city bypass signposted as the D2 state road providing a connection to the A5 motorway to the west of Osijek. The A5 is scheduled for extension north to the Hungarian border, where it would link up with the Hungarian M6 motorway. The A5 extends south to the Sredanci interchange of the A3 motorway, which carries the E73 concurrently with the E70 east to the Velika Kopanica interchange, where the E73 leaves the motorway and rejoins the D7 road once again for a leg to the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slavonski Šamac/Šamac border crossing at the Sava River. Similarly to the northward extension, a southward extension of the A5 is planned spanning the Sredanci interchange and a new border crossing at Svilaj. First segment of the E73 through Croatia, between Hungary and Bosnia and Herzegovina, is 125 kilometres (78 miles) long, including 63 kilometres (39 miles) of motorways.

The E73 route in Bosnia and Herzegovina is carried by the M17 road through a number of cities, as it spans the country from its northern border with Croatia to its southern border with Croatia. Some sections of the M17 road are concurrent with other national roads, such as M5 and M18, including a section north of Sarajevo signposted as the M5, and the 36-kilometre (22 mi) A1 motorway between Visoko and Sarajevo. The E73 in Bosnia and Herzegovina consists mostly of two-lane roads with at-grade intersections, running through Doboj, Zenica, Sarajevo, Konjic and Mostar. In Zenica, the E73 forms a junction to the European routes E661 and E761. The latter and the E73 are concurrent between Zenica and Sarajevo, where the E761 diverges towards Višegrad. The European route E762 also forms a junction with the E73 in Sarajevo, heading towards Nikšić, Montenegro. The route crosses back into Croatia south of Čapljina. Total length of the E73 route through Bosnia and Herzegovina is 379 kilometres (235 miles) long.

The southernmost segment of the E73 route is located in Croatia, spanning 11 kilometres (6.8 miles) between Metković border crossing and Opuzen, near the city of Metković itself, where the route physically signposted as the D9 state road/E73 connects to the D8 state road (European route E65). The D8 connects the E73 route to the port of Ploče to the north and Dubrovnik to the south. Furthermore, the section has a junction to the D62 state road providing a link to the A1 motorway and the Croatian motorway network in the south of the country. This section completes the total length of the E73 in Croatia of 136 kilometres (85 miles).