[4KHDR] Driving in Montenegro: Autoput A1 E65 from Podgorica to Kolašin - Montenegro's First Highway

In this video you can drive along on Montenegro's recently opened first motorway: The A1 E65 from Podgorica to Kolašin. This is a first 41 kilometer segment that was opened this summer.
Plans for a first motorway from the Adriatic Sea to the border with Serbia had been established for a while. After a lot of back and forth on the project and a lack of funding (the total project was estimated at 2.5 billion EUR), Montenegro turned to the Chinese and their well-known China Road and Bridge Corporation.
They effectively started work in 2015 after concluding the agreement in 2014. Excavation of most tunnels started around 2017-2018. As you will see in the video, there is quite an amount of tunnels and spectacular bridges on this stretch of Motorway. Montenegro's geography is quite challenging, further bumping up the construction cost.
The future A1 is supposed to take travellers from the coastal city of Bar on the Adriatic Sea to the border with Serbia via the country's capital Podgorica. Effectively the entire project is divided up in 3 phases, of which the middle phase now has been constructed. The total anticipated length of the motorway will be some 163 kilometers.
In the South near Bar the motorway will run along the coast for a bit until it turns inland. It will then bypass Podgorica on the West side before it joins this recently opened section just North of Podgorica. The third segment will continue near Kolašin and will be one of the more challenging to construct, as it will take the motorway through some mountainous terrain. It will pass the mountain city of Berane before reaching the border with Serbia.
The Motorway is very pleasant to drive and has the latest technologies for surveillance and monitoring. On the surface it seems to be built to a high standard, time will tell how it will age. At the moment the motorway doesn't really lead anywhere and also the roads from the capital to reach the start of the motorway have not been upgraded yet.
When finished, the motorway will undoubtedly bring more prosperity to Montenegro as the country, largely dependent on tourism, will be much more easier to access. The question is to what extent this anticipated increase in prosperity will keep up with the due loans and financing contracts from China.
As this motorway kind of leads to nowhere I really went out of my way to drive here and film this. So if you enjoyed this content, please consider subscribing to my channel or leave a comment / like, it would be highly appreciated 🙂
Distance driven in this video: approximately 50 kilometers
Toll paid: 3,50 EUR
#Autoput #A1 #Montenegro #E65 #Kolasin #Podgorica
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Driving route:
0:00 Intro & Map
0:45 Podgorica - A1 Motorway
4:35 A1 Podgorica - Exit Pelev Brijeg
9:35 Exit Pelev Brijeg - Exit Veruša
11:52 Exit Veruša - End of A1 Motorway (Mataševo)
16:00 M9 Mataševo - Kolašin

[@roadsexplore]

Incredible motorway, drove many years ago (in 2009) on the national road from Podgorica to Kolasin, the area is very mountainous and scenic. It was really hard to built a motorway there, the country entered in deep debt after building it, hope the road will bring some economic development to the regions of central Montenegro, that were quite hard to reach before.

[@TheMidasMD]

Montenegro is a lot more developed than they are commonly given credit for. it is a beautiful and amazing country with diverse topography and opportunities for tourism.

[@nielsontheroad]

Agree, although to me it never struck me as an under-developed country even before visiting it for the first time. I always had the impression that Montenegro was one of the more developed countries in the Balkan along with Croatia. I have been all over the Balkan and meanwhile have some reference 😀Its geography is a blessing and curse at the same time though. It's breathtakingly beautiful and surely attracts tourism, the flipside is how expensive it is to build and maintain infrastructure.

[@wanderingwarrior5626]

Very happy you enjoyed your time here. I made this country mine, after moving from U.S. 12+ yrs ago. Couldn't be happier. That's saying a lot because I've been to 40+ countries, lived in some for extended periods of time.

[@luigiparisi5841]

Impressive motorway, and stunning views! Technically, it reminds me of some sections of A2 Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway, in Southern Italy

[@kteo7794]

ma però quella c'hanno messo 70 anni a farla... questa 5

[@sergelambilliotte3878]

Very nice video thanks …. And quality ❤

[@TheMexxodus]

There's an interesting documentary on youtube on this Chinese built highway you're driving on in this video :) Very nice video of a very dramatic landscape.

[@nielsontheroad]

Thanks! Yes I believe there are a few, I watched one on ARTE the other day, quite interesting. Time will tell how this will further evolve for Montenegro.

[@Matz32]

Really nice views and a technically impressive motorway. Although expensive, it is a lot easier instead of winding mountain roads. Although you can see in the video a large, but probably gentle driveway.

[@dxelson]

not as expensive as their counter parts really

[@guffsuff9347]

China has done their best , beautiful roads

[@dragoscojanu4386]

Superb traseu ! Îmi poți spune cu ce ai filmat ???multumesc !

[@andrej.k]

What a nice highway. I have to try this.

[@AlexCaspian]

3:48 Russian yellow minibus GAZelle (ГАЗель) (i.e. marshrutka маршрутка).

[@AlexCaspian]

I'm actually from Russia. Montenegro has Russian-made cars in its territory

[@brothabox6998]

Crap

[@brothabox6998]

​@@AlexCaspianlol russian car 😂😂😂😂

[@flamurtarinegjakyt3745]

I don't get where it leads. Should have been parallel to the sea

[@Max-yh8zt]

Great video, the scenery is absolutely amazing. Just wondering how you were able to get the various PNGs for the road signs? For example at 9:28. Did you make them yourself or source them from somewhere?

[@nielsontheroad]

Thanks! I make the signs myself 🙂

[@Max-yh8zt]

@@nielsontheroadthey look really good! How do you make them? I’d love to be able to do so myself.

[@nielsontheroad]

@@Max-yh8zt Thanks! Just any graphics design software like adobe illustrator, inkscape, etc. that will handle .svg files will do. It's just rectangles, borders, fonts, arrows and some basic shapes. It'll take a while to get familiar with it but once you get the hang of it it's just repetition. Good luck!

[@kteo7794]

how do you do road shields and signs impressed on screen?

[@nielsontheroad]

Hi. You can make them with graphics design / illustrator software.

[@arifinbali3757]

Wow, that's quite cheap fare for this kind of highway.

[@user-kf6nh1rq8u]

VIVA Montenegro 🇲🇪🇪🇺 Aus Blendi Hamzai 🇪🇺🇪🇺💶💶💶🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪👍🤞✌️

[@ByMone]

Do you have a drive video from Cannes to Opatija?

[@nielsontheroad]

Do you mean like Cannes France to Opatija, Croatia?

[@ByMone]

@@nielsontheroad Yes

[@RoadsOfAsiaBen]

Great drive! Why the censor at 4:31 and 17:14?

[@nielsontheroad]

I don't mean to show my license plate on the internet ;-)

[@RoadsOfAsiaBen]

@@nielsontheroad Ah that's understandable.

[@xxnwjns2]

Always uncensored with my dad's licence plate on VW Passat B6, ​@@nielsontheroad

[@dxelson]

How is this a highway to nowhere 🤣

[@nielsontheroad]

As you can see there is no town or city at the end of the motorway. So until it's finished all it does is shorten the way to Serbia but it doesn't effectively lead anywhere that warrants such a big highway. I will upload some videos of roads in the North of Montenegro in the future and you will understand. It's just a few small towns up there.

[@reis1185]

Is this what they called A HIGHWAY TO NOWHERE? I hope Western media will make an update to this project and work better in their future propaganda 🤣

[@PedroJohnston1]

Yeah, they named it that because it is a highway that leads to nowhere.

[@dragutinkralj873]

Treba se Montenegro spojiti sa autoputom do hrvatske a hrvatska do montenegra

[@taniliung5166]

I to planiraju, sigurno do 2040😂😂