Croatia opens China-built bridge that bypasses Bosnia to get to Dubrovnik – a boon for tourists, businesses and residents

The Peljesac Bridge allows motorists to bypass a strip of Bosnian territory that cuts the Peljesac peninsula and Dubrovnik off from the rest of Croatia

Among the Balkan country’s most ambitious projects since its independence, the EU-funded, Chinese-built bridge ends long waits to cross into and out of Bosnia

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Croatia’s newly opened Pelješac Bridge, built by a Chinese company, allows motoriists to bypass a strip of Bosnian territory to get to the Pelješac peninsula and Dubrovnik. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 1:45pm, 27 Jul 2022Updated: 3:42pm, 27 Jul 2022

Croatia celebrated on Tuesday the opening of a long-awaited bridge linking its southern Adriatic coast, including Dubrovnik, with the rest of the country – and bypassing a narrow strip of Bosnian territory.

Braving summer heat, many Croats rushed to be among the first to cross the Pelješac Bridge on foot as it opened for pedestrians ahead of the formal opening ceremony – featuring a speech by Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and a video address by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang – in the evening. It opened to road traffic after the ceremony.

The 2.4km (1.5 mile) cable-stayed bridge, with six pylons for support, reaches out from the Croatian mainland to the Peljesac peninsula, which connects with the southern part of Croatia’s coastline, squeezed between the sea and the Dinaric Alps.

Festivities started early on Tuesday with musical performances and a boat race, while dozens of pedestrians snapped pictures on the bridge.

A ferry passes under the newly built Peljesac Bridge. Photo: AFP

“It is a major thing for people here since they did not even feel like they were living in their own country,” said Joso Miletic, 75, who travelled from his village near the city of Zadar, on the central coast, to watch the opening of the bridge. “This is the merging of Croatia into a whole.”