page_title: A1 (Croatia)
section_title: King Tomislav Motorway
hierarchical_section_title: A1 (Croatia) / History / King Tomislav Motorway
caption_attribution_description: Hrvatski: Vijadukt Kupa
context_page_description: The A1 motorway is the longest motorway in Croatia, spanning 476.3 kilometers. As it connects the nation's capital Zagreb to the second largest city Split, the motorway represents a major north–south transportation corridor in Croatia and a significant part of the Adriatic–Ionian motorway. Apart from Zagreb and Split, the A1 motorway runs near a number of major Croatian cities, provides access to several national parks or nature parks, world heritage sites, and numerous resorts, especially along the Adriatic Coast. National significance of the motorway is reflected through its positive economic impact on the cities and towns it connects as well as its importance to tourism in Croatia.
  The motorway consists of two traffic lanes and an emergency lane in each driving direction separated by a central reservation. All intersections of the A1 motorway are grade separated. As the route traverses rugged mountainous and coastal terrain, it has required 376 bridges, viaducts, tunnels and other similar structures in sections completed as of 2014, including the two longest tunnels in Croatia and two bridges comprising spans of 200 meters or more.
context_section_description: The Zagreb–Split motorway, now the A1 motorway, was one of three routes defined by the Parliament of the Socialist Republic of Croatia on 5 March 1971, as priority transport routes of Croatia that were to be developed as motorways. Originally the motorway was designed to follow a route from Zagreb to Bihać (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and then to Split via Knin. The government of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued its approval for the route in Bihać region in the same year. Construction of the motorway was initiated by a fundraising effort — a public loan. The funds gathered initially through the public loan were sufficient for construction of 20 kilometers (12 mi) of the motorway.
  The 39.3-kilometer (24.4 mi) long Zagreb–Karlovac section of the Zagreb–Rijeka motorway, now part of the A1 motorway, was completed in 1972. Further construction of motorways from Zagreb to Rijeka and Split was suspended for the next 28 years following a political decision of the Croatian leadership, newly installed during Yugoslav suppression of the Croatian Spring, to "stop megalomaniac projects". It is considered that the true reason for the cancellation of the works was that the motorway was considered to be a "nationalist" project. The conclusion is supported by the fact the road was spontaneously nicknamed King Tomislav Motorway (Croatian: Autocesta kralja Tomislava) by citizens investing their money through the public loan after the first king of medieval Croatia, who united Croatia as a single kingdom in 925. The funds raised through the public loan were left unused for several months, then spent for construction of a road between Vrlika and Strmica via Knin, now a part of the D1 and D30 state roads. However, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe recognized the route as the southernmost part of the Pyhrn route, giving it the designation E59 in 1975. Subsequent reorganizations of the E-road network, including the latest one in 2008, transferred the route south of Zagreb to the E71.
caption: The oldest section of the A1 motorway, near Karlovac
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