Highway "Brotherhood and Unity"

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Highway "Brotherhood and Unity" in March 2005 near Otočec in Lower Carniola, Slovenia
Highway "Brotherhood and Unity" in March 2005 near Otočec in Lower Carniola, Slovenia

Highway "Brotherhood and Unity" (Serbo-Croatian: "Bratstvo i jedinstvo", "Братство и јединство"; Slovene: "Bratstvo in enotnost"; Macedonian: "Братство и единство") stretched across former Yugoslavia, from the Austrian border in the northwest, near Triglav, via Ljubljana, Zagreb, Belgrade, Skopje to Gevgelija on the Greek border in the southeast.

It was named autoput or autocesta (generic Serbo-Croatian words for highway, motorway), because at the time it was the one and only modern highway in the country. This use is gradually fading out as new highways get built.

During SFRY, the road was brought up to modern standards (four lanes, two for each direction, plus an emergency lane for each direction) on sections Kranj-Ljubljana (20 km), Zagreb-Županja (259 km) and Sremska Mitrovica-Belgrade-Niš (277 km).

Work on the parts that ran through Croatia commenced in 1977. As of 2006, modern freeway is completed through Croatia (from Slovenian to Serbian border), on approximately 80% length through Slovenia (fully completed by 2008) and fully complete in Macedonia. The road is part of the modern-day European routes E61 (Austria-Ljubljana) E70 (Ljubljana-Belgrade) and E75 (Belgrade-Greece). It is also part of the Pan-European corridor X. Parts of the road constitute the Croatian A3 highway and the Zagreb bypass.

The project to build this road was an idea of Tito, who called the project the "Road of brotherhood and unity" (Cesta bratstva i jedinstva).