Ljubljana - National motorways company DARS will mark 50 years since the first motorway section opened to traffic in Slovenia, as well as the former Yugoslavia. It was in December 1972 that first cars drove on the section between Vrhnika and Postojna on what is now the Primorska section of the A1 motorway.

DARS's major project this year will be the full introduction of electronic toll stickers, a project launched at the end of 2021. 70,000 e-vignettes have been sold so far.

DARS will also continue construction of the second tube of the Karawanken tunnel on the border with Austria and of the Third Development Axis expressway.

Boring in the Karawanken tunnel is expected to be completed in 2023 and the expanded tunnel open to traffic in 2025, DARS said in a press release.

Works on the northern section of the Third Development Axis, which runs from for Koroška region (N) to Dolenjska and Bela Krajina regions (SE), will continue between the cities of Velenje and Slovenj Gradec, and start at one section in the south, between Novo Mesto - east and Osredek, near the Revoz car factory.

DARS plans to spend EUR 74 million on new roads this year and another EUR 75 million on renovation, including several motorway sections.

A third lane is meanwhile planned on the A1 motorway between Koper and Maribor - on both the Štajerska, NE, and Primorska, SW, sections.

DARS will also publish a tender to purchase speed trap systems to be introduced gradually, first at the most critical sections - on the Štajerska motorway in the Trojane tunnels, and on the Dolenjska motorway in the south-east.

Efforts to prevent wrong-way driving will continue by adding more 3D road marks at certain motorway entries after five motorway entries were marked with them last year.