Egnatia Odos is the longest east-west motorway in Greece, connecting the western coastal city of Igoumenitsa (a port almost across from Italy) to the eastern border of the country with Turkey. The new facility, with 2 lanes of traffic per direction, is expected to reduce travel times from 11.5 hours (on the existing road network) to 6.5 hours from one end of the motorway to the other. The road has been named after the ancient Via Egnatia, which had been built during the Roman Empire to connect Rome with Constantinople. As a strategic road link between Europe and Asia it belongs to the Trans-European Network of motorways. Egnatia Odos A.E. (EOAE), a state-owned corporation, was established by the Greek State in the last few years to oversee the design, construction and operation of the motorway. Construction is well under way and approximately 216 km have already been opened to traffic, while completion of the entire motorway (including some of the most difficult sections) is anticipated by the year 2005. Eventually, when a series of north-south connections to ports, border crossings and other highways are completed in the long term, EOAE may have under its control approximately 1,400 km of motorway network. The variety of physical and traffic characteristics of Egnatia Odos makes it a unique candidate for a wide range of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) applications. Specifically, the western portion of the motorway traverses a mountainous terrain with elevations in the order of 800 - 1,000 m where fog, strong wind, snow and ice conditions are not that uncommon. The central portion contains the longest, continuous urban section of the facility with approximately 43 km of the motorway by-passing the city of Thessaloniki. The rest of the facility crosses a rather rural and mostly flat terrain, with smaller bypasses around towns. The motorway will have 70 tunnels with a total length of approximately 73 km. Ten of the tunnels will be longer than 1,000 m, with the longest one about 4.5 km long. There will also be over 200 bridges with a total length of approximately 40 km. As well, there will be 50 grade-separated interchanges, while 13 toll stations are planned to cover the entire facility in an "open" tolling concept. This paper presents an overview of the telematics systems used by the motorway, and describes the challenges of the project as well as the lessons learned.
Abstract