Drivers heading for Croatia's Kvarner coast face slow, winding roads between Rijeka and the Crikvenica riviera. That should start to change: on 16 October, Croatia officially launched construction of a 5.2-kilometre section of the A7 motorway between Križišće and Jadranovo, the first piece of a long-planned extension that will eventually push the motorway from Križišće all the way to Žuta Lokva.

The section is worth €151.48 million excluding VAT and has been handed to contractor GP KRK, with a 36-month build window. Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Oleg Butković attended the site handover and called it a long-awaited milestone. Funding is already secured for two sections of the wider project totalling around €400 million, and the next stretch from Jadranovo to Selce has been contracted too, awaiting its building permit.

This is serious engineering for a short distance. The plan includes a twin-tube tunnel at Križišće, two viaducts at the Križišće interchange, and underpasses at Javornik and the Jadranovo interchange.

For holidaymakers, the payoff is straightforward. The new route will stitch together coastal towns that are currently linked by slow coastal roads: Kraljevica, Crikvenica, Novi Vinodolski and onward towards Senj. Local officials, including Primorje-Gorski Kotar County Assembly president Marko Boras Mandić, noted the Žuta Lokva motorway has been discussed for more than 25 years and should make it easier to reach Rijeka for healthcare, culture and sport — handy if you're staying in the area and want a city day.

There's wider investment in the pipeline too. Butković flagged a recently contracted €900 million modernisation of the Dugo Selo–Novska railway line, signalling continued spending on road, rail and port infrastructure across the country.

If you're planning a Kvarner trip in the next couple of years, expect some construction activity along this corridor, but the end result — smoother, safer drives between the coast and inland Croatia — should make resorts like Crikvenica and Selce much easier to reach from Zagreb and Rijeka airport. Anyone who has crawled along the old coast road in peak August traffic will appreciate why locals have waited a quarter of a century for this.

Story via Croatia Week.