National Road SH1 shield}}
National Road SH1
Rruga shtetërore SH1
The SH1 runs across the counties of Durrës, Lezhë, Shkodër and Tirana.
Map of the Rruga Shtetërore 1 (SH1) mainline denoted in blue in Albania
Route information
Part of
Maintained by the Autoriteti Rrugor Shqiptar
Length125 km (78 mi)
Major junctions
North end Han i Hotit
South end Tirana
Location
CountryAlbania
Counties
Major cities
Highway system

The national road SH1 (Albanian: Rruga Shtetërore 1) is a national highway in Albania. It has a length of 125 kilometres (78 mi) across the counties of Durrës, Lezhë, Shkodër and Tirana.

As part of the European routes E762 and E851, the highway constitute portion of a larger corridor connecting Montenegro in the northwest with Tirana in the southwest thus forming as well as part of the Adriatic-Ionian motorway.[1][2][3][4][5]

In recent years, the road has been undergoing major reconstruction works in several parts.

Route

Tha National Road SH1 leads to the Albanian-Montenegrin border at Hani i Hotit border crossing. From Tirana at the Kamza Bypass (Albanian: Mbikalimi i Kamzës) northward, it passes through Fushë-Krujë, Milot, Lezhë, Shkodër, and Koplik. Between Thumane and Milot, the SH1 became part of A1 Motorway.

Background

The road segment between Han i Hotit and Shkodër (about 32.5 km (20.2 mi)) was completed in 2013 as a single carriageway standard (Albanian: superstradë). The Shkodër Bypass started after the 2010 floods. It was planned to incorporate a defensive dam against Lake Shkodër, but works were abandoned a few years later only to restart in 2017. The road continues as a single carriageway down to Milot and contains some uncontrolled and dangerous entry and exit points.

It is planned that sections between Milot and Lezhë will be widened to dual carriageway standard in the near future.

When it was designed in early 2000s, the entire road between Tirana and Shkodër was intended to be a dual carriageway. However, the lack of funding at the time only allowed for one carriageway to be constructed, thus the lack of shoulders. The section between Milot and Fushë-Krujë was unofficially named as the "Road of Death" by many media reports for its structural deficiencies. As of 2009, the 25 kilometres (16 mi) dangerous long section is being upgraded to motorway standard and has become part of the A1 motorway connecting the capital Tirana with Kosovo.

See also

References

  1. ↑ United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. "European Agreement on Main International Traffic Arteries" (PDF). unece.org. Retrieved 26 April 2011.
  2. ↑ Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy. "SECTORIAL STRATEGY OF TRANSPORT & ACTION PLAN 2016 – 2020" (PDF). infrastruktura.gov.al. Tirana. pp. 15–16.
  3. ↑ "The Adriatic - Ionian Transport Corridor" (PDF). researchgate.net. p. 5.
  4. ↑ "THE CORE TRANSPORT NETWORK South-East Europe Transport Observatory SEETO" (PDF). ec.europa.eu. p. 2.
  5. ↑ "WESTERN BALKAN 6 PRIME MINISTERS CORE NETWORK AND PRIORITY PROJECTS" (PDF). 21 April 2015.

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