Highways in Greece

Entrances and exits to the motorways are only provided at grade-separated junctions (interchanges) and there are no traffic lights.

In 1998, a survey of the Hellenic Statistical Authority defined some new national roads that were constructed after the 1963 decision.

The construction of the Greek motorway network has been, to a large extent, a very complex and demanding project due to the peculiarities of the geomorphology of the areas through which the new roads pass.

In order to overcome these difficulties, the construction of multiple large and expensive technical works, such as tunnels and bridges, was necessary in many cases.

However, the parallel is not exact; the original Via Egnatia was much longer (1,120 km / 696 miles) and its western section, from Thessaloniki to the Adriatic Sea, ran much further north than the modern road.

Another auxiliary route runs close to the Evros river in the prefecture of the same name, reaching a point where Greece's, Turkey's and Bulgaria's borders meet.

It starts from Ioannina at the A2 (Egnatia Odos) interchange, and currently ends at Rio, in Patras, after crossing the Corinthian Gulf through the Rio-Antirrio bridge.

The route passes through most of western continental Greece, along the Ionian Sea, hence its name "Ionia Odos".

The Attiki Odos has various auxiliary routes, namely the Aigaleo Ring Road (A65) and the Hymettus Ring Road (A62), serving parts of western and eastern Athens respectively; while the 6 km (4 mi) section leading from the main route to the Athens International Airport is numbered as the A64.

It is more widely known as North Road Axis of Crete (Greek: Βόρειος Οδικός Άξονας Κρήτης, BOAK) and is Greece's only motorway that is not on its mainland, but on an island.

Its full length will be 310 kilometres or 193 miles[8][9] from Sitia in the east to Kissamos in the west, and it is expected to be completed by the year 2031.

On April 4, 2018, an international tender was launched by the Greek government for the Εxpression of Ιnterest for the procurement, design and installation of a satellite and electronic toll system (e-tolls) in the Greek motorways, using automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) and GNSS technologies.

The new system would be the first distance-based pricing model in Greece, replacing the existing toll plazas and charging vehicles depending on the distance covered in the entirety of the country’s motorway network (including the currently state-owned Egnatia Odos).The project's cost was estimated at about €400 million.

[15] The system would be double; Passenger vehicles' license plates would automatically be captured and identified by traffic cameras upon their entrance and exit from the tolled motorway network with the use of ANPR technology, while professional and heavy vehicles would all carry transponders which would monitor and record their position using satellites (GNSS technology).

5 contenders participated in the tender, namely Aκtor SA – Intrakat – Intrasoft Int’l SA- Autostrade Tech S.p.A., Mytilineos – Nusz, Terna – Vinci – Kapsch TrafficCom, OTE – T-Systems International GmbH and STRABAG – SkyToll.

[16] In May 2019, the second phase of the tender was completed and two consortiums passed, Aκtor SA – Intrakat – Intrasoft Int’l SA- Autostrade Tech S.p.A. and Mytilineos – Nusz.

[17] Finally, a week before the legislative election of July 2019, the then Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Networks Christos Spirtzis appointed concessionaire the consortium of Aκtor SA – Intrakat – Intrasoft Int’l SA- Autostrade Tech S.p.A., after evaluation of the financial offers.

[19][20] In the autumn of 2019, the tender for the electronic toll system was cancelled by the Council of State following the discovery of several deficiencies and an appeal by the Mytilineos – Nusz consortium, second bidder of the tender, and other participants regarding the bid evaluation procedure, noting that its bid was not preferred although it was lower by €70 million.

Drivers will therefore be able to travel and pay tolls electronically using a single transponder across the entire Greek motorway network.