Despite the inflation and its effects on the operations of the FBiH Motorways in 2022, the public enterprise recorded the expansion of road infrastructure over the past year and has announced that 2023 will be crucial for the completion of the Corridor 5C construction.

“Regardless of all the problems that the the whole world is faced with, the FBiH Motorways company managed to do a lot owing to its own engagement and based on available resources and capacities, so we can say now already that there has been expansion in the road infrastructure on the territory of the Federation (FBiH). The Federation BiH has turned into a huge construction site, and in the upcoming period the volume of work will significantly increase,” said the company in charge of the road construction in Bosnia's Federation entity.

According to the company's data, a toal of 126 kilometres of highways have been constructed on the Corridor 5c, the pan-European corridor linking Hungary, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina on the Budapest-Ploce route. With the opening of the Tarcin-Ivan section in October last year, Bosnia and Herzegovina got close to 100 kilometres of uninterrupted functional highway.

The largest volume of work on the construction site on the Corridor 5C is currently being carried out in the central Zenica-Doboj Canton, and its compeltion is expected in 2024, according to the company.

Funds secured for the construction of the complete route

The company said it has already secured the financial resources from the international financial institutions for the entire corridor that is going to be build through the Federation's territory.

In addition to the loans, significant support for the construction of the highway has also been secured through grants of the European Union, which are provided within the framework of the Connection Agenda through the Investment Framework for the Western Balkans (WBIF) in the amount of 40 percent of the investment costs.

The beginning of the construction of the most demanding facilities

This year could be crucial for the completion of the entire project of corridor 5C, as the start of work on two extremely demanding facilities – the Prenj tunnel and the Mostar bypass are planned in 2023.

According to the company, it is realistic to expect that all 335 kilometers of Corridor 5C within Bosnia and Herzegovina will be completed in 2028, which can be achieved under the condition of the construction of the Prenj tunnel within a period of six years, and unless unforeseen circumstances arise that cannot be influenced and assumed at this time.

In addition to the completion of the Corridor 5C, the company said it would also focus on the construction of expressways in the coming years.

This includes the first kilometers of expressways in the section Bihac – Cazin – Velika Kladusa in the nothwest of the country, Mostar – Siroki Brijeg – the border of the Republic of Croatia in the south and Nevic Polje – Turbe in the central part of the country.