Roads in Albania - Highways, Expressways or Freeways

Highways, Expressways or Freeways

• Total: 18,000 km
  • Paved: 12,920 km
  • Unpaved: 5,080 km (2002 est.)

country comparison to the world: 118

After the fall of communism in 1991, Albania began to revamp its primitive road infrastructure. Since the 2000s, the latter has significantly improved as main roadways have been upgraded to near European standards. Major cities are linked with new single carriageways or with well maintained roads inherited from communism. There is a dual carriageway connecting the port city of Durrës with Tirana, Vlorë, and partially Kukës. However, some state roads and most rural segments continue to remain in bad conditions as their reconstruction has only begun in the late 2000s by the Albanian Development Fund . In fact, the Albanian government has received 50 million Euros from the EBRD for the reconstruction of rural roads.

There are three official motorway segments in Albania marked with green color: Rrëshen-Kalimash, Thumanë-Milot and Levan-Vlorë. Despite considerable investments, other dual carriageways are partially up to either motorway or state road standards as they contain unfinished overpasses, uncontrolled access points, indiscriminate usage by animals and pedestrians, lack of fencing, and inadequate entry and exit ramps.

The biggest road project in the history of Albania was the construction of the Rrëshen-Kalimash dual carriageway from 2007 to 2010 linking Albania with Kosovo and part of the A1 Motorway. The segment involved the carving of a mountainous terrain, and the construction of a 5.6 km long tunnel and dozens of bridges.

In October 2010, Prime Minister Sali Berisha announced plans to build several major highways. The first major priority is the completion of the Tirana-Elbasan Highway Motorway (Autostradë) including the construction of a tunnel. The second priority is the construction of the Southern Axis of Albania (Boshti i Jugut) passing across the central and southern part of the country. The third priority is the finishing of the Arbër Highway Single Carriageway (Rruga e Arbërit) linking Tirana with the city of Debar (Republic of Macedonia) through the current SH6. Eventually, this superstradë will become part of European corridor 8 linking Albania with the Republic of Macedonia and Greece. Another ongoing project is the completion of the Eastern Ring of Albania (Unaza Lindore) passing from Valbonë, Kukës, Krumë and Bulqizë to Librazhd. When all corridors are completed, Albania will have an estimated 759 kilometers of highway linking it with its neighbors.