The 100km motorway connecting Ljubljana and the Slovenian coast was officially completed on Thursday, when a new 6.9km section from Crni Kal to Srmin in the southwest of the country opened to traffic.
"It took over three decades for us to finish the motorway from Ljubljana to Koper, and by doing so we have fulfilled a very important goal: we have connected the region of Primorsko and central Slovenia."
This is what CEO of DARS, the Slovenian motorway company, said at a ceremony in honour of the opening of the final section of the Ljubljana-Koper motorway.
Janez Bozic, who is also the nominee for the new transport minister, explained that a 41km section of the motorway, from Vrhnika to Razdrto, was built in December 1972 as the first motorway ever constructed in Slovenia or the former Yugoslavia.
The 6.9km section stretches from Crni Kal to Srmin near the town of Ankaran, and includes the Skofije junction as well as the 2.2km Dekani tunnel.
It is part of the 14.9 kilometre stretch from Klanec to Srmin/Ankaran, the value of which amounted to EUR 236.5 m (based on June 1999 prices).
There are 13 viaducts and three tunnels on the 14.9km stretch. While 42 percent of the investment was financed from the national budget, the rest came from EIB loans.
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