Autocesta Zagreb - Sisak
Length:	0 km (0 mi)
Planned length:	47.5 km (29.5 mi)
From:	A3 highway near Zagreb
To:	Mošćenica beyond Sisak
Countries:	Croatia
Regions:	Zagreb, Zagreb County, Sisak-Moslavina County
Major cities:	Zagreb, Sisak

A11 south of Velika Gorica (from Air, October, 2008.)

The A11 highway (Croatian: Autocesta A11) is an incomplete motorway in northern Croatia, which will connect the city of Sisak via Velika Gorica to Zagreb.^[1] Construction began in 2007, advancing from north to south. One 9 km subsection between Velika Gorica and Buševec is currently open (since May 2009).

The road is meant to connect to new road and bridge infrastructure at the southern approaches to Zagreb, relieving the existing major interchanges of the Zagreb bypass at Buzin and Lučko. The highway would be important to commuters from Velika Gorica and Turopolje who have to use the Velikogorička road to get to Zagreb, a single-lane road which is congested during rush hour.

[edit] Controversy

The road faces opposition from local activists (mainly from Vukojevac) claiming to protect wildlife and nature^[2][3]. The construction has been delayed because of various land acquisition problems with private land owners, and also because of a dispute with the municipal government (Zagreb county and the city of Velika Gorica) and the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Physical Planning and Construction. The highway is currently being built along the original, unchanged route.

The road construction has been a hot topic during election time, featuring numerous public clashes between two local political heavyweights: HDZ's Ivan Šuker, the Minister of Finance and former mayor of Velika Gorica, and SDP's Tonino Picula, the former mayor of Velika Gorica and former Foreign Minister. Šuker has blamed Picula for obstructing the highway construction by not issuing all the necessary permits since 2006, while Picula has blamed the Government's lack of prior funding for the initial delay and lack of cooperation with Ministry of Environmental Protection concerning the issuance of the general construction plan for the county. The Ministry in turn has blamed the cities of Zagreb county for not being able to agree on the location of a waste management centre as the reason why they haven't approved their general construction plan.^[4]

A currently unconnected short strip of highway around the Velika Gorica south interchange was built before the construction of the northern sections of the highway began. The opening of the first section coincided with the local elections in May 2009, and this was actually not the entire planned section (Velika Gorica jug-Lekenik) but a 9 km section, with 11.2 km still to go. This was widely ridiculed in the media as an election stunt, also because the previous opening of 3.4 km of highway near Velika Gorica^[5] had coincided with the Croatian parliamentary election, 2007.

In May 2009, the HAC signed contracts for the completion of the southern part of the highway, between Buševec and Sisak, however, because of the economic crisis these contracts had to be canceled and renegotiated later the same year.^[6] The completion date is still set to mid-2011.

Proposals have been presented to start the construction from Mošćenica and continue northbound until the problems are solved.

[edit] Future plans

The Sisak highway terminus was planned bearing in mind the future Josipdol-Glina-Sisak-Popovača expressway. Possible continuation of A11 toward Bihać and Velika Kladuša has been discussed. In general this would likely become the future route between Zagreb and the major cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including Banja Luka and Sarajevo, however, this would require significant investment while the existing routes (via A3, E661, E73 etc) are still very much viable if a bit longer.

[edit] References

1. ^ HAC
2. ^ autocesta.org
3. ^ Autocesta A11 - Blog Odbora za promjenu trase autoceste Zagreb-Sisak
4. ^ http://www.poslovni.hr/Content/LinkedArticles.aspx?kID=2499
5. ^ November 22, 2007 HAC Vijesti: Istočna obilaznica Velike Gorice
6. ^ Raskidaju se ugovori o gradnji: Je li kriza pojela autocestu do Siska?

[edit] External links

• Exit list of A11