If you've driven a Croatian motorway, you know the routine: slow down, queue at a toll booth, fumble for kuna-era coins or a card. That's all due to change under Crolibertas, Croatia's big switch to fully electronic tolling — and this week the project hit a snag, though the end goal hasn't moved.

What happened: Hrvatske autoceste (HAC), the state motorway operator, cancelled a tender for the digital side of the system — the web portal, mobile app and data platform drivers will actually use to manage and pay tolls. Three bids came in and all were thrown out. One bidder, Zagreb IT firm Abysalto, had already passed the technical checks but priced itself out: €379,000 before VAT against an estimated value of €330,000. It's also not the first stumble — in July the national public procurement watchdog annulled HAC's original award after an appeal, forcing a re-evaluation before this cancellation. HAC is now starting the process again.

Here's the reassuring part for road-trippers: the hardware is largely in place. By September more than 100 electronic gantries had been installed across the network, with the 111st going up at Dugopolje on the A1, the main spine route from Zagreb towards Split. The rollout covers motorways run by HAC, Bina Istra and Autocesta Zagreb-Macelj, and is meant to replace toll booths entirely — you just drive under a gantry and the toll is recorded automatically.

Why should a traveller care? Because this changes the practical experience of a Croatian road trip, especially if you're renting a car or crossing in from Slovenia, Hungary, Austria or Bosnia. No more toll-plaza queues in peak August traffic on the A1 to the coast. But it also raises the usual questions occasional users have with these systems — how visitors register, pay and avoid fines — and that's exactly what the cancelled app-and-portal tender is supposed to answer. Until that procurement is redone and sorted, some of the user-facing details remain up in the air.

The bottom line: Crolibertas hasn't been derailed. Construction and preparations continue, and the delay affects the digital services layer, not the gantries themselves. Anyone driving in Croatia next summer should keep an eye on how HAC handles registration and payment for foreign-registered and rental vehicles once the new system goes live — the transition period rules will matter more than the procurement paperwork.

Story via Croatia Week.