page_title: Motorways in North Macedonia
section_title: Motorway A3
hierarchical_section_title: Motorways in North Macedonia / Motorway A3
caption_attribution_description: English: A1 motorway at D.Kapija/Smokvica
context_page_description: The motorways in North Macedonia are called avtopat and the name, like its translation in most languages, simply means auto road.
  The system has inherited much from the former Yugoslavia, although new sections have been completely built in the recent years. Pay-tolls remain in place and the speed limit is 130 km/h. The total length of the motorway network as of Spring 2019 is 317 km, with extra 57 km being under construction. The works on the planned motorway from Skopje to Kosovo's border are expected to start in 2020, while there are also plans to connect Gostivar and Kicevo with a motorway, as well as Ohrid and Struga to the Albanian border. Furthermore, most stretches of the existing network have been reconstructed, so overall the Macedonian motorways are in decent shape.
  The highways were originally marked with yellow-colour hard shoulder lines and some of these remain in place, they are however slowly being phased out and replaced with white. The motorway roadsigns maintain their green colour background, a feature shared with Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Greece, Czech Republic, Lithuania and the United States as well as the other former Yugoslav republics.
context_section_description: Currently, only a small section of the route A3 is a motorway (the one that goes along A4 from Štip to Kadrifakovo), while some sections are in the process of turning into express roads. The route traverses the country from east to west, between the border with Bulgaria near Delčevo, via Kočani, Štip (A4 junction), Veles (A1 junction), Prilep, Bitola, ending in Ohrid (A2 junction). Four lane express roads are being built in the stretches between Štip and Kočani as well as between Prilep and Gradsko. There are plans to build express roads with a possibility to upgrade them to motorways at the sections Bitola - Greece's border and Prilep - Bitola.
caption: Bridge at D.Kapija-Smokvica stretch
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