Slovenia, founded after the dissolution of Yugoslavia and which won its independence in June 1991 and international recognition in the beginning of 1992, is one of the smallest countries in Europe. It has only 20250km2 in size and two million inhabitants. Some 400000 Slovenians live outside the country's border, of that only in Canada about 30000. The geographical position of Slovenia by the northern part of the Adriatic Sea, which represents the northernmost cut in the European continent (the bay of Trieste) and its location along the southern slopes of the Eastern Alps, points out to its traffic value in linking the Central Europe with its south-eastern part, and in connecting the northern Italy (the Po plain) with its hinterland (France, Spain, south Switzerland) with Hungary and the countries of the eastern Europe (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia). In the north Slovenia borders on Austria, on Italy west, in the east on Hungary and on Croatia to the south (the former Yugoslav republic) with which it shares the longest border. The overall road network of Slovenia comprises about 45000km, of that 206km of motorways, main roads 1360km, country roads 3396km and communal roads 9800km. The rest are local and forest roads. By obtaining its independence (in 1991), it was necessary to project the guidelines for national, political and economic development, where the traffic segment and within it the road network undoubtedly play a very significant role. In such dilemmas Slovenia is not alone. How to tackle the old and the newly created problems? Where to start? On repairing what was lost and planning the new there have to be taken into account, on one side, the exterior and interior political circumstances, and professional (i.e. economic, technical) arguments on the other side. It is imperative to find out the actual situation of the traffic load on the road network, namely by the structure of the vehicles and division of traffic into foreign and domestic. This is mainly true for all small countries, bordering on the larger neighbours and having strong transit traffic flows, which represent a part of continental or intercontinental traffic directions. Furthermore, we have to find out in the optimum, how much of the traffic will be taken over by the railway or other traffic means. On determining the economic side of the new road construction, the multiplication or acceleration factor has to be established, which, on the basis of economic acitivity revival, accompanying the construction, supplements to the results of the eligibility study. The dangers showing on establishment of the national programme of the overall road network, are mainly the following: -planning according to desires of the current politics, - overestimated or underestimated financial resources and costs, - unrealistic evaluation of ecological and space factors, - disregarding the possibilities of phase construction in the senses of technology and time, - forcing by prestige the construction of high category roads (motorways), and neglecting the secondary and tertiary road network, - disregarding the economic situation of the country. (A)
Abstract