Expressways in Croatia - Motorways

Motorways

The primary high-speed motorways are called autoceste (; singular: autocesta), and they are defined as roads with at least three lanes in each direction (including hard shoulder) and a speed limit of not less than 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph). They are marked with a special road sign, similar to the road sign depicting a motorway/autoroute/autobahn in other parts of Europe. In Croatia this sign has green background. The national speed limit on an autocesta, effective in case no other speed limits are present, is 130 kilometres per hour (81 mph), with a legal tolerance of 10% on speeds over 100 km/h (as of 2009). The term autocesta is sometimes translated by Croatians simply as highway, which can be confusing because a highway can be any main road, and the terms motorway (British English) and freeway (American English) would be more precise. As of September 2010 Croatian motorway network is 1,124.9 kilometres (699.0 mi) long.

Motorways in Croatia are defined by the Ministry of Sea, Transport and Infrastructure. The same applies to names of the motorway interchanges and rest areas. Likewise, the same legislation defines the origin of motorway chainages - at the northern or the western terminus of the motorway - and the motorway markings themselves. The markings are defined as consisting of letter "A" and the motorway number assigned by the legislation, except if a specific motorway is executed in construction stages and considered an expressway, in which case the applicable motorway number is preceded by letter "B" instead.

Generally, the motorways in Croatia are developed and maintained by the state-owned company Hrvatske autoceste (Croatian Motorways Ltd). There are several exceptions to this, namely Zagreb (Lučko) - Bosiljevo 2 section of the A1 motorway, the A6 and the A7 motorways which are managed by Autocesta Rijeka - Zagreb (Rijeka - Zagreb Motorway), the A2 motorway, managed by Autocesta Zagreb - Macelj (Zagreb - Macelj Motorway) and the A8 and the A9 motorways which are managed by BINA Istra.