The volume of traffic on the Croatian motorways increased by 25.63% in 2021 compared with the previous year, while toll revenues rose by 27.39% to 2.75 billion kuna (€366.59 million) excluding VAT, the Croatian Association of Toll Motorway Concessionaires (HUKA) has reported.

Last year, all motorway operators reported annual increases in the volume of traffic for all categories of vehicles. The number of vehicles using toll motorways increased from 55.4 million in 2020 to 69.7 million in 2021.

Toll revenues reached 2.75 billion in 2021, compared with 2.16 billion kuna in 2020, 3.15 billion kuna in 2019 and 3 billion kuna in 2018.

In 2021, the Hrvatske Autoceste company opened to traffic the 0.7-km-long Sava Bridge, while Bina-Istra completed the works on a 16.82-km-long section of the Istria Motorway, upgrading it to full motorway standards.

As at 31 December 2021, the total length of the Croatian motorway network was 1,313.40 km, and the toll motorways were 1,229 km long. They were operated by three companies: Hrvatske Autoceste, Bina-Istra and Autocesta Zagreb-Macelj.

A total of 24.60 km of motorways was to be opened or has been opened to traffic this year, mainly on the Beli Manastir-Osijek-Svilaj section of the A5 motorway.

Slightly over 1 billion kuna (€144.42 million) was invested in the construction of new motorways, and 394.51 million kuna (€52.46 million) in the reconstruction of various sections. The three companies planned to invest a total of €207.93 million in 2022.

The Croatian motorways mostly operate a closed toll collection system, and motorway use is charged per mileage and vehicle category.

The government has begun the process of transforming the existing tolling system, which includes toll barriers at toll booths, into a free flow system that will allow electronic tolling without barriers and will be interoperable with the future European Electronic Toll Service (EETS).

In 2021, a total of 2,747 traffic accidents were reported on motorways, in which 36 people were killed and 458 injured. In 2020, the number of people killed in accidents on motorways was 22.

Last year, 292 people were killed in accidents on all roads in Croatia, up from 237 in 2020. The number of road accidents increased by 29% from 2020 and the number of injuries by 55.7%, HUKA said.

(€1 = 7.5 kuna)