Road Tolls for Lower-Grade Roads to be Implemented Too – Tender for Preparation of Feasibility Study Opens

The PE Roads of Serbia has been announcing, for years, the possibility of implementing road tolls on lower-category roads for cargo vehicles that currently use them for free, and now they’ve gotten to the stage of a feasibility study.

This public company has opened the tender for the preparation of a document that is supposed to analyze the need for the implementation of a road toll system on new – future highway sections and lower-grade roads.

The aim of the study, according to the tendering documentation, is to show the cost-effectiveness of the implementation of road toll collection on traffic routes of said categories, for commercial vehicles of over 12 tons.

The document is expected to provide an answer to the question of the feasibility of the preparation of such a study and which road toll system would be the optimal one.

– Since the implementation of road toll in Serbia, it has been noticed that a large number of heavy cargo vehicles avoid using highways in order to avoid paying the road toll and therefore using, as an alternative, lower-grade roads, especially main roads of I and II grade. This leads to the increased wearing out of those roads and causes additional maintenance costs, while also slowing down the traffic on those roads, leads to the increase of traffic accidents and directly lowers the road toll revenues on highways – says the explanation of the reasons for the preparation of the study.

The study will take into account similar solutions in Europe, the selection of an adequate solution for Serbia, the technical solution of the system, an estimate of costs, the examination of the sections where it makes sense to implement road toll on main roads, as well as the cost-effectiveness of that system.

According to earlier speculations, road toll collection could first start on the Ibar Main Road and the road between Belgrade and Nis.

Experts agree that there is a need for the charging of road toll on lower-grade roads and that it is feasible, but also point out that a certain level of service needs to be offered to the users in return.

– Simply introducing the road toll, without upgrading the level of road service, will be received negatively by the users – Drazenko Glavic, a professor at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering, warned for eKapija, when we talked to him about this subject three years ago.

The tender for the preparation of the study is open until October 8.

B. P.

JP Putevi Srbije Beograd

Saobraćajni fakultet Beograd

PE Roads of Serbia

Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering in Belgrade

Drazenko Glavic

road toll

road toll collection

lower grade roads

lower category roads

main road

highway

trucks

freight trucks