Montenegro’s next section of the Bar–Boljare motorway has moved from planning into preparatory works, putting the Mateševo–Andrijevica route at the centre of the country’s infrastructure agenda. The project covers around 22 kilometres of motorway through difficult mountain terrain and is currently the largest infrastructure project under implementation in Montenegro. It will be built by a Chinese consortium comprising Power Construction Corporation of China, STECOL Corporation and POWERCHINA Chengdu Engineering Corporation, listed in Montenegrin tender documentation as POWERCHINA Ltd.–STECOL–PCCD.
The contract value is €693.97 million excluding VAT, with financing structured through a €200 million EBRD loan, a €150 million EU grant and the remaining amount covered from Montenegro’s state budget. This makes the project more than a road contract. It is a practical test of whether Montenegro can combine Chinese construction capacity with European financing discipline, environmental standards and tighter project governance.
The route is designed for speeds of 100 kilometres per hour and includes a high share of engineering structures. According to project data, the section includes the Trešnjevik tunnel, around 3.6 kilometres long, 21 bridges with a total length of about 4.8 kilometres, the Andrijevica interchange and supporting motorway management and maintenance facilities. The construction profile shows why the section is economically important but technically demanding: the risk will be concentrated in geology, tunnelling, bridge foundations, slope stability, drainage and the coordination of design and construction packages.
The implementation schedule is also significant. The design phase is planned to last 14 months, while construction is expected to take 46 months, creating a total delivery horizon of around five years, followed by a further two-year period for defect correction. That timetable gives Montenegro a long construction cycle in which cost control, claims management, supervision quality and environmental compliance will matter as much as physical progress on site.
For the north of Montenegro, the motorway section is presented as a development catalyst. Once completed, travel from Podgorica to Andrijevica is expected to fall to around 38 minutes, improving access to the Lim valley and municipalities such as Andrijevica, Berane, Rožaje, Gusinje, Plav and Petnjica. This region accounts for about 12 per cent of Montenegro’s population and has potential in mountain tourism, wood processing, water resources and mineral wealth.
The strategic value of the project will depend on whether Montenegro uses the construction period to prepare the economic layer around the road. Faster travel times alone will not transform the north. The motorway needs to be accompanied by prepared tourism zones, logistics nodes, industrial locations, local supplier programmes, better municipal permitting and bankable projects that can attract private capital once connectivity improves.
POWERCHINA Chengdu has stated that the project will be delivered in line with Montenegrin regulations and European standards, with attention to safety, quality and green construction. That pledge will now have to be demonstrated through daily site practice, especially in environmental protection, worker safety, spoil management, watercourse protection, dust control, noise monitoring and local-community coordination.
The Mateševo–Andrijevica section is therefore becoming a benchmark project for Montenegro’s infrastructure maturity. Its value will not be measured only by the opening date, but by whether the country can deliver a complex €693.97 million mountain motorway without losing control of costs, deadlines, environmental obligations and the broader development opportunity for the north.
