The bridge provides a fixed link from the southeastern Croatian semi-exclave to the rest of the country while bypassing Bosnia and Herzegovina's short coastal strip at Neum.

The bridge spans the sea channel between Komarna on the northern mainland and the peninsula of Pelješac, thereby passing entirely through Croatian territory and avoiding any border crossings with Bosnia and Herzegovina at Neum.

[citation needed]The construction of the bridge was publicly proposed in 1997 by Ivan Šprlje, the Prefect of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County and member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

[21] The construction works on the Pelješac project officially commenced in November 2005 with a grand opening led by then-Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.

[25] On 14 September 2007, the Ministry of Construction announced that the Konstruktor/Viadukt/Hidroelektra consortium had won the contest and that it would sign a contract for 1.94 billion HRK, roughly €265 million at the time.

In July 2009, the Croatian Government under Jadranka Kosor announced that, as part of the effort to reduce expenses during the economic crisis, the construction of the Pelješac Bridge was to proceed under a much slower timetable than originally planned.

[27] After the 2011 Croatian parliamentary election, the new SDP-led government terminated the existing construction contract worth 1.94 billion HRK (c. €259 million) for lack of funds in May 2012.

She also emphasized that the ratification of the Tuđman-Izetbegović treaty of 1996 (Neum Agreement) was not a condition to receive European funds for the construction of the bridge, but it would be no harm if it did happen.

[42] The European Commission announced on 7 June 2017 that €357 million from Cohesion Policy funds will be made available for the bridge and the supporting infrastructure (tunnels, bypasses, viaducts and access roads), with completion scheduled for 2022.

[45] On 15 January 2018, Hrvatske ceste made a formal decision according to which China Road and Bridge Corporation won the tender.

[48][49] The idea of a large bridge connecting Pelješac to the mainland caused concern among environmental activists in Croatia, who opposed it because of potential damage to sea life in the Bay of Mali Ston, as well as to mariculture.

[21][54][55] According to the news program Dnevnik Nove TV, another possibility was a highway corridor through Bosnia and Herzegovina with high walls and strict surveillance.

[58] Several Bosnian politicians initially opposed the building of the bridge, originally planned to be only 35 metres (115 ft) high, because that would have made it impossible for large ships to enter the harbor at Neum.

In August 2017, a group of unnamed Bosnian MPs wrote a letter to the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini of Italy, and to the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina Valentin Inzko of Austria, claiming that Croatia was in violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and was "cutting off without permission" their country from international waters through the Pelješac Bridge project, calling upon Croatia "to stop attacking the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a maritime state and stop all activities on building an illegal and politically violent bridge project at the Komarna-Pelješac location".

The Bosnian MPs noted that Bosnia and Herzegovina had never given formal consent, by the Council of Ministers nor by the Presidency, to the bridge project and its financing with EU funds.

Croatia also stated that the expected height of the bridge of 55 metres (180 ft) would allow all current Bosnian shipping to use the existing navigational route to transit under the bridge, and that any ship taller than that which intended to dock at a port in Bosnia and Herzegovina could dock instead at the Croatian port of Ploče, in line with the 1995 Free Transit agreement.

The official position of recent years has been in the sense of encouraging Croatia to continue with such an infrastructure project that is of great importance for Bosnia and Herzegovina as well.

"[64] The Serb member of the Presidency Mladen Ivanić stated that he supported construction and that it was necessary to ensure that maritime arrangements allowed ships to freely travel to Neum.

[65][66] President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik stated in August 2017 that Croatia had the right to build the Pelješac Bridge, adding that Bosniak parties were unnecessarily creating problems.