Vucic Opens First Five Kilometers of Kragujevac Bypass
President Vucic opened the first five kilometers of the Kragujevac bypass, a section that, for the first time, was built entirely by Serbian companies.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic opened the first five kilometers of a new expressway today, September 20, marking the start of the bypass that will eventually circle Kragujevac. The stretch is the first section of a 21 kilometer route designed to pull truck traffic out of the city and connect the Batocina and Lapovo direction with the Moravica District. The opening comes after months of construction on a road meant to relieve the city center of freight traffic.
Vucic toured the new section behind the wheel of a car, accompanied by Miroslav Alempic, assistant minister of construction. He posted a video from the scene.
“Here we are on the Kragujevac bypass, the first five kilometers, it’s opening now. It looks phenomenal,” Vucic said, adding that the section runs through the Petrovac Jovanovac interchange and comes out at the Cvetojevac industrial zone.
The president said the new road links a wider stretch of Sumadija, from Batocina and Lapovo, through the northern part of the Moravica District around Gornji Milanovac, to Dragobraca near Kragujevac, and that truck traffic will now bypass the city instead of driving through it.
Crews excavated 440,000 cubic meters of earth on the section that opened, and the Technical Inspection Commission gave it a passing grade to be put into use. Officials said the work was carried out exclusively by domestic companies, and Alempic noted that this was the first time an expressway of this type had been built by a Serbian firm. Tanjug named the company Srbija Autoput as the contractor.
Addressing Vucic during the tour, Alempic spelled out the deadline for the work his company is doing.
“This is one of the first contracts where our company is building an expressway, and I can say that, as things stand, they will finish even ahead of schedule. Our deadline for this expressway is April 28. The road has passed inspection, meaning the Technical Inspection Commission rated it positively,” Alempic said.
His statement does not suggest that the April 28 deadline covers the entire 21 kilometer project, only the contract and section his company is building. Officials did not say when the full bypass would be finished.
Asked by Vucic when the section would open to traffic, Alempic joked it would be “in five minutes,” suggesting the road was going into use almost immediately.
The section, as both Tanjug and Kurir reported, includes overpasses, underpasses and two realignments of local roads, built, according to Alempic, using a special technique.
During the tour, Vucic also commented on the safety barrier installed along the route.
“This flexible barrier, if it held me, it can hold a truck too. So we’re doing this in Cacak. A domestic company,” Vucic said, joking that the barrier had not given way under his own weight.
The president described the opening of the section as significant for the wider area around Kragujevac.
“I am very happy because this changes people’s lives in Sumadija, it makes it easier for them to connect, it guarantees greater safety and less pollution in the urban area,” Vucic said, adding that trucks would from now on travel along the bypass instead of through the city itself.
Vucic added that once the full 21 kilometer route is finished, the bypass will be a “lifesaver for the city,” without giving a date for completing the remaining roughly 16 kilometers.
President Vucic and Assistant Minister Alempic attended the opening. No opposition reaction to the opening had been recorded as of publication.
