Croatia's plan to scrap toll booths on its motorways is hitting turbulence. The new Crolibertas system — meant to let drivers sail through gantries without stopping, paying via electronic ENC devices or automatic number-plate reading — is legally required to go live on 1 March 2027. But with less than five months to go, a key procurement process has just collapsed.
Croatian Motorways (HAC) cancelled the tender for the system's sales web portal, mobile app and integration data bus. In May it picked a consortium of Bos Projekt, Infinum and AMR CyberSecurity for about 329,500 euros, only for the State Commission for Public Procurement to throw out that decision after an appeal from rival bidder Abysalto. On review, HAC rejected every bid — including its original favourite, allegedly over diploma technicalities (the wrong faculty for its engineers) and an ISO certificate that didn't clearly cover software production. A third offer from H&D Info was also rejected for missing expert requirements and exceeding budget. Now HAC must either rerun the tender or negotiate directly with a contractor, eating into time it doesn't have.
The wider project is still moving, but not quickly. Of 212 toll portals with cameras and antennas planned across the network, 111 are installed. The main implementation contract — worth nearly 80 million euros excluding VAT — sits with the SkyToll and TollNet consortium, with total costs of 160.5 million euros, of which 115.6 million is covered by EU Recovery and Resilience funds. After all hardware is in place, a full network-wide test is still required before launch.
There's history here, too. When the main contract was signed in September 2024, the works were due to finish by September 2026 and the government promised the system would run after that summer. The deadline then slipped to March 2027 — and HAC itself describes the project as complex and multidisciplinary, spanning technology, legal and operational workstreams. Officials insist publicly that everything is on plan, but an cancelled tender with an ongoing appeal window leaves little slack.
For anyone planning a driving holiday through Croatia, this matters in two ways. Until the switch happens, expect the familiar booth-based payment system to continue — keep cash or card handy at toll stations. If Crolibertas does launch on schedule in March 2027, rental car users and foreign drivers will likely deal with plate-reading and online or app-based payment instead of queues at ramps, which should speed up peak-season summer traffic on routes like the A1 to Dalmatia. Whether that date holds is now the multi-million-euro question. — Total Croatia
