2022: Croatia Gets a New Bridge

July 26, 2022

The Pelješac Bridge in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County, the southernmost county of the Republic of Croatia, was officially opened to motor vehicle traffic. This cable-stayed bridge, which carries a two-lane expressway across Bay of Mali Ston (a bay of the Adriatic Sea), serves as a key connection between Croatia’s peninsula of Pelješac and the remainder of the country. Sabina Mikulic, owner of a hotel and winery in Orebic (the peninsula’s largest town), was among those looking forward to the inauguration of the long-awaited bridge. “It is indeed a historic project,” she asserted at that time.

The 7,887-foot (2,404-meter)-long Pelješac Bridge was designed by structural engineer Marjan Pipenbaher. Construction on this bridge began on July 30, 2018. The overall significance of the Pelješac Bridge was highlighted by Oleg Butković, Croatia’s minister of maritime affairs, transport and infrastructure. “The importance of the bridge is enormous, and it’s not only emotional due to the connection of Croatia’s territory, but also for tourism and the economy in general,” he said a few weeks before the bridge’s grand opening.

Photo Credit: Ponor (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)

For more information on the Pelješac Bridge, please check out https://www.ponting.si/en/projects/peljesac-bridge-115.html