The Motorway to the Nation

ita eng
31 January 2011

It is the largest infrastructure investment ever made in Albania. Pandeli Majko's socialist government started it and Sali Berisha's right-wing government completed it; the total cost is around a billion euros. “Around” – because nobody knows how much it exactly cost, since Albania's main public work was carried out without any project or budget estimate. A photo-report by Marjola Rukaj

The Motorway to the Nation
It is the largest infrastructure investment ever made in Albania. Pandeli Majko's socialist government started it and Sali Berisha's right-wing government completed it; the total cost is around a billion euros. “Around” – because nobody knows how much it exactly cost, since Albania's main public work was carried out without any project or budget estimate. 
Haphazard
The haphazard development of the new motorway is clear: whole lanes are affected by slides and, according to technicians, the terrain is not stable enough for constructions of this size.
Three hours
It now takes three hours from Pristina to Tirana. In the past, going to Pristina used to be a hard, dangerous endeavour – a 10-hour drive snaking around the Albanian Alps, on narrow roads hanging on cliffs.
Closer to Belgrade
This motorway will be one of the most important modes of transportation in the Balkans, connecting Tirana and the Durrës port to Belgrade. Economic ties between Tirana and Belgrade are strengthening; this infrastructure had been needed for some time.
Limited traffic
Currently, very few vehicles transit on this road. The traffic cannot be compared to that of the southern road connecting Albania and Greece. The latter is, however, in very bad shape, and the many lethal accidents are, unfortunately, the norm.
Rruga e Kombit
Albanian politicians named it Rruga e Kombit, “The way to the nation”, because it unites Kosovo and Albania. Few people, though, believed in the project in Albania, and many acts of corruption and nepotism emerged, especially during the Berisha government.
Sali Berisha
Kosovar people define it as “the road that united Albanians”. “Now that we are united, it is much easier to go to the seaside,” comments a man from Gjakova/Djakovica. The Albanian prime minister enjoys huge popularity among Kosovars. :Rrnoft Sali Berisha” (Long live Sali Berisha), they say while talking about the motorway. “If Sali Berisha loses the power, Albania will end up badly,” repeat some Kosovars on their journey back to Pristina.
Contradictions
Many in Kosovo forgot about Berisha's breaking of the embargo against Serbia in the nineties or the arms traffic between Tirana and Belgrade during the Kosovo conflict, discovered by The New York Times. “Sali Berisha is a patriot, these are slanders motivated by jealousy,” they say.
Landscapes
The road crosses magnificent landscapes, uncontaminated mountains with snow-covered peaks.
Development
Along the motorway, you can see the first new houses and bars. We are in the poorest, unpopulated  area of the country. Many locals worked in the construction of the motorway. A bar owner says, “It is no longer worth migrating, in a few years we will have mountain tourism like in the south.”
Formalities
Crossing the border between Albania and Kosovo is a formality that takes few minutes. The Albanian motorway ends in Morina, but here and there in Kosovo, the structures of new roads in construction start appearing. It is election time, time for infrastructure investment.