Belgrade City Road Bypass or simply Belgrade Bypass is a beltway, currently under construction, around the city of Belgrade

Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

, the capital city of Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

.

It is one of Serbia's most important infrastructural projects, financed from the National Investment Plan with the financial backing of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Founded in 1991, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development uses the tools of investment to help build market economies and democracies in 30 countries from central Europe to central Asia. Its mission was to support the formerly communist countries in the process of establishing their...

 and European Investment Bank

European Investment Bank

The European Investment Bank is the European Union's long-term lending institution established in 1958 under the Treaty of Rome. A policy-driven bank, the EIB supports the EU’s priority objectives, especially European integration and the development of economically weak regions...

. Its construction is expected to alleviate Belgrade's congestion

Traffic congestion

Traffic congestion is a condition on road networks that occurs as use increases, and is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. The most common example is the physical use of roads by vehicles. When traffic demand is great enough that the interaction...

 problems, and remove all transit traffic from the city center, unloading the critical Gazela and Pančevo bridge

Pancevo Bridge

Pančevo Bridge or colloquially Pančevac is the only bridge over the Danube in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia...

s. The total length of the bypass will be 69 kilometers.

The bypass was planned by the Belgrade's general urbanistic plan, and its parts have been sporadically built for 17 years. However, the works intensified around the end of 2005. The total investment is estimated at euro

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

 543 million, with around € 370 million remaining. Of those, 55 million come from the EBRD, 180 from the EIB, and the remainder from the National Investment Plan.

The works are carried out by the Public Utility "Roads of Serbia", with Mostogradnja

Mostogradnja

Mostogradnja is the leading Serbian bridge building company, with headquarters in Belgrade and daughter companies in Podgorica, Montenegro and Banjaluka, Bosnia and Herzegovina and a representative office in Moscow, Russia...

, Energoprojekt niskogradnja, and Planum as subcontractors. However, the payments to the contractors have been spotty, and the City of Belgrade had to participate in the financing as well, in order to pay at least a part of the debt.

As of Spring 2011, all sections of the bypass are under heavy construction, with hundreds of trucks and other utility vehicles being used simultaneously. The Government of Serbia and the City of Belgrade have made this the top priority work.

Sections

The bypass will consist of three principal sections:

• Section A, Batajnica
  Batajnica
  Batajnica is an suburban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Zemun.-Name:...
  
  –Dobanovci
  Dobanovci
  Dobanovci is an suburban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Surčin....
  
  , connecting the Belgrade-Novi Sad
  Novi Sad
  Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....
  
   highway (E75
  E75 in Serbia
  The part of the European route E75 in Serbia spans approximately . It crosses the country from north to south, starting at Horgoš border crossing with Hungary and ending with Preševo border crossing with Republic of Macedonia...
  
  ) on the north and Šid
  Šid
  Šid is a town and municipality in the Srem District of Vojvodina, Serbia. Šid town has a population of 16,301, and Šid municipality 38,921.-Name:...
  
  –Belgrade highway on the west (E70
  E70 in Serbia
  The part of the European route E70 in Serbia spans approximately . It crosses the country from east to west, starting at Batrovci border crossing with Croatia and ending with Vatin border crossing with Romania...
  
  ), 9.7 km long.
• Section B, Dobanovci–Bubanj Potok
  Bubanj Potok
  Bubanj Potok is a non-residential suburban settlement of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Voždovac.-Location:...
  
  , connecting E70 with the southbound Belgrade-Niš
  Niš
  Niš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...
  
   highway (E75), 37.3 km long - partly finished (from Dobanovci to Orlovača
  Orlovaca
  Orlovača is one of major cemeteries in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the Belgrade's municipality of Čukarica....
  
  )
• Section C, Bubanj Potok–Vinča
  Vinca
  Vinca is a genus of six species in the family Apocynaceae, native to Europe, northwest Africa and southwest Asia. The English name periwinkle is shared with the related genus Catharanthus .-Description:Vinca plants are subshrubs or herbaceous, and have slender trailing stems 1–2 m long...
  
  –Starčevo
  Starcevo
  Starcevo can refer to:* Starčevo, a town in Serbia* Starčevo culture, a neolithic culture of Europe* Startsevo, a village in Bulgaria...
  
   (near Pančevo
  Pancevo
  Pančevo is a city and municipality located in the southern part of Serbian province of Vojvodina, 15 km northeast from Belgrade. In 2002, the city had a total population of 77,087, while municipality of Pančevo had 127,162 inhabitants. It is the administrative center of the South Banat...
  
  ), 22 km long, crossing the Danube
  Danube
  The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
  
   across a new bridge.

Section B from Dobanovci to Orlovača was finished and opened for traffic in October 2008. The rest of section B is currently under construction, and opening is expected in May 2012. Section B, spanning the hilly terrain, will include 4 tunnels and 40 viaduct

Viaduct

A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early...

s, nine of them over 400 m high. In the final stage, it will also require enhancement of the existing Ostružnica bridge to accommodate the planned dual carriageway

Dual carriageway

A dual carriageway is a class of highway with two carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation...

.

Section C is technically the most complex, as its construction involves building a 1,190 m bridge over Danube, and additional 11 viaducts and 2 tunnels. Its exact route is not decided yet, and the completion is scheduled by 2017.

External links

• Beobuild.net – news, discussions and photos of the bypass