National Roads and Motorways in Greece


The National Roads and Motorways in Greece constitute the main road network of the country. These two types of roads are distinct in terms of their construction specifications. Their main difference is that motorways adhere to higher quality construction standards than National Roads.
For example, a typical motorway in Greece consists of six or four lanes plus an emergency lane, separated by a central barrier. Entrances and exits to the motorways are only provided at grade-separated junctions and there are no traffic lights. Greek motorways are generally organized so that the odd-numbered motorways are of north-south alignment and the even-numbered motorways are of east-west alignment. However, there are many exceptions.
A typical National Road in Greece is usually a single carriageway or limited-access road with at-grade intersections and with one or two traffic lanes for each direction, usually with an emergency lane on each side as well. The designation of some important roads of Greece as "national" was first decided by a 1955 decree, while a minister's decision in 1963 determined the numbering of these roads. In 1998, a survey of the Hellenic Statistical Authority defined some new national roads that were constructed after the 1963 decision.
The naming system of motorways and National Roads is different. For example, "A2" refers to the Egnatia Odos motorway, while "GR-2" refers to National Road 2. All motorways are named by using the capital letter "A", followed by a number. The main motorways of Greece have a single digit number and auxiliary motorways perpendicular to the main ones have a double digit number. Motorways have their own white-on-green signs, while National Roads are designated by white-on-blue signs.
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. The Greek mainland is extremely mountainous; the local topography as well as environmental concerns regarding the local flora and fauna played a decisive role in the final route design. 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. Indicatively, the total number of tunnels built along the four Greek major highways is about 150 and their total length is about 200 km.
With a total length of about 2500 km as of 2020, Greece's motorway network is the biggest one in Southeastern Europe and one of the most advanced in Europe.

Motorways

Greece's motorway network has been extensively modernized throughout the 2000s and part of it is still under construction. Most of it was completed by early 2017. There are a total of 10 main routes throughout the Greek mainland and Crete, from which some feature numerous branches/auxiliary routes, as described in the listing below.

Greek motorways according to ministerial decree of 2015

A1 (Athens - Thessaloniki - Evzonoi)

Motorway 1 is the oldest and most important motorway of Greece, connecting the country's largest cities, Athens and Thessaloniki and passing through many important regions of Greece on a south-north direction. Section Chalastra - Evzonoi was constructed earlier as an expressway, with no upgrade planned.
The full length of this motorway is around 553 km or 346 miles, including 14 km or 8.7 miles of shared route with the A2. Note that until recently, the "P" in "PAThE" referred to Patras, but the Patra – Athens section has now become part of the A8 motorway, belonging to a different project.
Motorway 2, officially named Egnatia Odos, is a motorway situated in northern Greece, connecting several major cities on the way. It starts at the port of Igoumenitsa and ends at Kipoi border crossing with Turkey.
Specifically, there are auxiliary routes to Albania and Bulgaria, with the main route leading to Turkey. North Macedonia is accessed through the A1, as described above, or via Motorway A27. 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. Some of those auxiliary routes are not yet motorways, but typical 2-lane expressways, although they are of considerably higher quality than other similar expressways in the rest of Greece. The project, was completed in 2009, with the length of the main route being 670 kilometers or 416 miles, making it the longest motorway in Greece.
Motorway 3, or the Central Greece Motorway is currently under construction and planning. It will lead from Motorway 1 near Lamia to Motorway 2 near Grevena and will carry the European route E65. Its total length will be.
Construction began in 2009, lasted 2 years and stopped in 2011 due to the financial crisis. At the end of 2013 it was decided to proceed with the immediate construction of the central middle section, Trikala - Xyniada with a length of 80 km, while construction of the northern and southern sections was postponed.
The middle section between Xyniada and Trikala was inaugurated and opened to traffic on December 22, 2017. In October 2018 the European Commission approved the funding for the construction of the southern section, Xyniada - Lamia, which is currently underway and is expected to be completed until 2021. Construction date for the northern section, Trikala - Egnatia Odos junction, is yet unknown.

A5 (Ionia Odos)

Motorway 5, also referred to as the Ionia Odos, is a fully operational motorway since 3 August 2017 when its last section under construction was delivered to traffic. It starts from Ioannina at the A2 interchange, and currently ends at Rio, in Patras, after crossing the Corinthian Gulf through the Rio-Antirrio bridge. There, it connects to the A8 motorway. The future, currently under construction, Patras - Pyrgos motorway is typically part of the A5 Motorway.
The route passes through most of western continental Greece, along the Ionian Sea, hence its name "Ionia Odos". Work on the majority of the highway began in spring 2006 and would span six years, to be completed by 2012. Though, because of economic problems of the constructing companies, all construction works were halted in 2011, but since mid-2013 works on the whole of the 196 km motorway started again. The motorway was completed in August 2017.
Motorway 6, or Attiki Odos forms part of the urban motorway network of Athens's metropolitan area. Its full length is and it is also planned to be extended to various directions, bringing its total length to. The Attiki Odos has various auxiliary routes, namely the Aigaleo Beltway and the Hymettus Beltway, serving parts of western and eastern Athens respectively; while the 6 km section leading from the main route to the Athens International Airport is numbered as the A62.
Motorway 7, known as the Moreas Motorway or Eastern Peloponnese motorway starts from Corinth, at the interchange with the A8 and continues to Kalamata, passing through Tripoli. It replaced the old GR-7 as the main road, with the section between Corinth and Tripoli, constructed between 1984 and 1990 and officially becoming part of the Greek road network in 1992.
The A7 has recently undergone extensive improvement to full motorway standards. As of December 2012, the motorway section between Corinth and Kalamata is fully constructed and operational. Its total length is 205 kilometers or 127 miles.
Motorway 8, referred to as the Olympia Odos, is the motorway from Athens to Patras. It begins in Elefsina, at the interchange with A6 and will end in Patras.
The Elefsina–Corinth section has been completed to motorway standards, while the Corinth – Patras section begun construction in 2008, and was due to be completed in 2012. After construction works had begun again the whole motorway was completed in 2017. It includes the widening and general reconstruction of the GR-8A along with some new tunnels and bridges.

A90

Motorway 90 is a temporary name for a motorway under construction in Crete. It is more widely known as North Road Axis of Crete and is Greece's only motorway that is not on its mainland, but on an island. Certain parts have already been completed, as of summer 2007, at Heraklion and Chania. In late 2014, the Agios Nikolaos - Kalo Chorio part was opened to traffic. Its full length will be 310 kilometres or 193 miles. Other sources claim it to be 250 km or 156 mi.

Electronic toll system and interoperability

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 in the Greek motorways, using automatic number plate recognition 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.The project's cost was estimated at about €400 million.
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. 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. 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. 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.

Cancellation of the first tender

Although the tender for the new system had been strongly disputed by the contestants themselves, the then Minister Ch. Spirtzis of Syriza decided to proceed with it. The concerns regarded the subject of the tender itself, as such a wide implementation does not exist in any developed country, as well as the absence of an agreement for the implementation of such a system. Moreover, existing concession agreements with the private companies managing most of the Greek motorways would have to be amended.
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. The tender was officially cancelled at the end of May 2020.

Interoperability

From March 2011, five of the total of seven operating concessionaires of the Greek motorways are part of an interoperable network named "GRITS", which allows drivers to travel along the participating motorways, passing from the electronic toll lanes, using a single transponder.
In October 2019, it was agreed that the remaining two concessionaires, as well as the currently state-owned Egnatia Odos SA, would join the GRITS network. Drivers will therefore be able to travel and pay tolls electronically using a single transponder across the entire Greek motorway network. In the autumn of 2019 technical discussions began between all the companies, testing of the system began in the summer of 2020 and it is expected to become operational in the autumn of 2020.

National Roads

The National Roads in Greece are single carriageway or limited-access roads with one or two traffic lanes for each direction, usually with an emergency lane on each side as well.
Greek National Road 1: Athens – Lamia – Larissa – Thessaloniki – Evzonoi - North Macedonia, replaced by Motorway 1
Greek National Road 2: Albania - Krystallopigi – Florina – Edessa – Thessaloniki – Kavala – Xanthi – Komotini – Alexandroupoli – Feres - Turkey
Greek National Road 3: Elefsina – Thiva – Livadeia - Lamia – Farsala – Larissa – Elassona – Kozani – Florina – Niki - North Macedonia
Greek National Road 4: Kozani – Veria – Chalkidona
Greek National Road 5: Antirrio – Agrinio - Amfilochia – Arta – Ioannina
Greek National Road 6: Igoumenitsa – Ioannina – Metsovo - Trikala – Larissa – Volos
Greek National Road 7: Corinth – Argos – Tripoli – Megalopoli – Kalamata
Greek National Road 8: Athens – Corinth – Aigio - Patras old road
Greek National Road 9: Patras – Pyrgos – Methoni
Greek National Road 12: Thessaloniki – Serres – Drama – Kavala
Greek National Road 13: Elassona – Katerini
Greek National Road 14: Drama – Xanthi
Greek National Road 15: Kalambaka – Grevena – Neapoli – Kastoria – junction with GR-2
Greek National Road 16: Thessaloniki – Arnaia - Ierissos
Greek National Road 17: Ioannina - Dodoni
Greek National Road 18: Preveza – Filiates
Greek National Road 20: Ioannina – Konitsa – Neapoli – Kozani
Greek National Road 21: Preveza – Filippiada
Greek National Road 22: Kakavia – Kalpaki
Greek National Road 24: Corfu - Palaiokastritsa
Greek National Road 25: Corfu - Lefkimmi
Greek National Road 26: Elassona – Deskati - Karpero
Greek National Road 27: Amfissa – Lamia
Greek National Road 29: Itea - Desfina - Steiri
Greek National Road 30: Arta – Trikala – Karditsa – Farsala – Volos
Greek National Road 31: Aigio – Kalavryta
Greek National Road 33: Patras – Panopoulo – Psofida - Vlacherna
Greek National Road 34: Volos - Argalasti - Platania
Greek National Road 35: Zakynthos - Keri
Greek National Road 36: Mytilene – Kalloni - Mithymna
Greek National Road 38: Thermo - Agrinio – Karpenisi – Lamia
Greek National Road 39: Tripoli – Sparta – Gytheio
Greek National Road 42: Vasiliki - Lefkada – Vonitsa – Amfilochia
Greek National Road 44: Thiva – Chalcis – Karystos
Greek National Road 48: Antirio – Nafpaktos – Galaxidi – Livadeia
Greek National Road 50: Argostoli – Sámi
Greek National Road 51: Feres – Didymoteicho - Orestiada – Ormenio - Bulgaria
Greek National Road 53: Alexandroupoli - Aisymi - Metaxades – Ormenio
Greek National Road 55: Xanthi - Kotyli - Bulgaria
Greek National Road 56: Athens - Piraeus
Greek National Road 57: Drama – Exochi - Bulgaria
Greek National Road 59: Nea Zichni – Amfipoli
Greek National Road 62: Karlovasi – Samos
Greek National Road 63: Serres – Sidirokastro - Promachonas - Bulgaria
Greek National Road 65: Thessaloniki - Kilkis
Greek National Road 66: Nemea – Levidi
Greek National Road 69: Thasos ring road
Greek National Road 70: Corinth – Epidavros – Nafplio – Argos
Greek National Road 73: Kratygos – Mytilene – Thermi
Greek National Road 74: Pyrgos – Olympia – Tripoli
Greek National Road 75: Kardamyla – Vrontados – Kallimasia
Greek National Road 76: Krestena – Andritsaina – Megalopoli
Greek National Road 77: Chalcis – Mantoudi - Istiaia - Aidipsos
Greek National Road 79: Malakasa – Skala Oropou
Greek National Road 81: Afidnes – Kalamos
Greek National Road 82: Pylos – Kalamata – Sparti
Greek National Road 83: Anoixi – Marathon – Rafina
Greek National Road 85: Rafina – Lavrio
Greek National Road 86: Krokees – Monemvasia
Greek National Road 87: Pallini – Spata
Greek National Road 89: Markopoulo Mesogaias – Lavrio
Greek National Road 90: Kissamos – Chania – Rethymno – Heraklion – Agios Nikolaos – Sitia
Greek National Road 91: Vouliagmeni – Sounio
Greek National Road 95: Rhodes – Lindos
Greek National Road 97: Heraklion – Tympaki
Greek National Road 99: Heraklion – Arkalochori

Greek National Road 8A: Athens – Corinth – Patras new road
Greek National Road 16A: Greek National Road 16 – Polygyros
Greek National Road 34A: Volos – Portaria - Horefto
Greek National Road 111: Agia Triada – Lambia - Lalas - Ancient Olympia

Current construction projects in Greece

As of autumn 2017, most motorway construction projects all over Greece are completed.
This is a list of European routes that shows which parts of them run through Greece.
Major routes:
Preveza – Rio - – Patras - - Pyrgos - – Kalamata
Medžitlija-Níki – Florina – Florina – Kozani - Kozani – Elassona – Larissa – Lamia - Amfissa – Galaxidi - Galaxidi – Antirio - Rio – Corinth - Corinth – Kalamata - Kissamos – Chania
border with North Macedonia – Thessaloniki – Athens - Chania – Aghios Nikolaos
Bulgarian border – Serres through GR-57, Serres – Thessaloniki
Greek National Road 51
Albanian border at Krystallopigi – Florina – Edessa – Giannitsa – Gefyra
Egnatia Odos or Via Egnatia, Igoumenitsa - Thessaloniki - border with Turkey
Greek National Road 6
Attiki Odos - Athens – Corinth

Other routes:
Kakavia -
Greek National Road 5
Preveza-Amfilochia - Karpenisi – Lamia
Greek National Road 39
Elefsina – Thiva

Note: When certain highways that carry European routes are replaced with motorways, the European routes will be reassigned to the new motorways. For example, GR-7 carried the E65 from Tripoli to Kalamata. When the Corinth – Tripoli – Kalamata motorway was completed, the E65 numbering was reassigned to it.