I - 51 : No Greek Highways Without EU

The 2004 completed Rion Antirion Bridge in Patras links A5 and A8 and cost EUR 670 Million

At the end of this summer’s sailing, we will return from Pylos (Gulf of Navarino) to Athens. The journey takes 3 ½ hours. From Pylos to Kalamata it is 70 minutes. Once we join Highway A7, it is less than 2 ½ hours. On 240 kilometer, we cross many bridges and travel through tunnels 5 km in total. The Peloponnese is hilly. The 2 lane highway now easily cuts through all these obstacles.

A7 winding its Way through Mountains north of Tripoli

Fully completed in 2012, the A7 cost EUR 1.0 bn to build. 30% were financed by public and community funds, the remaining 70% by Moreas SA, a Greek highway company owned by Greek and Qatari shareholders. The European Investment Bank and some commercial banks provided the loans. Could not find Moreas' balance sheet but I guess that 2/3 of the EUR 700 million were financed by loans and the rest by equity. Moreas concession last 30 years. If Moreas had to amortise its assets by 1/30 p.a., the tally would be EUR 23 m. Given that the toll for a 5 seater car is EUR 10 from Corinth to Kalamata, 2.3 million cars have to use the highway every year or 6’300 every day. There are no numbers on the utilisation. I was on this highway three times during summers. It did not feel that busy. Am not sure that the debt can be repaid within the concession period. But it can be rolled - we Europeans are good at that Without EU support (equity and EIB loans), the A7 may never have been built..

Greece with its very challenging Topography

Greede's topography and its sparse population density are both a blessing and a curse. The geographical separation fostered the development of several cultural centers like Sparta, Athens, Corinth or Thebes. Thanks to high hills and mountains, Greece has many natural harbors. A strong naval capacity was the direct result. The hilly topography and little arable land also made Greece poor. They did not emigrate and colonise the Mediterrtanean for the sake of adventure but because they had to. The difficult terrain was also an obstacle for many invaders. Albeit large foes like the Persians, Ottomans or the Wehtmacht had the means to overcome them. The challenging topography also prevented the Greek people from coming together as a nation. Most Greek people lived locally. When I mention that the railway line Thessaloniki – Athens was only completed in 1918, at the end of the First World War, many people are surprised.

Greek Road Map from 1946 - onlty Red Roads have a hard Surface

There is an interesting map from 1946, possibly made by the British Royal Engineers for the Department of State. The map shows the then road condition. Very few were surfaced with asphalt. But then almost nobody had a car. The few car owners lived in Athens and Saloniki.

Looking for photos for this blog, I found a German book from 1932 “Griechenland im Auto erlebt” von C.T.Wiskott. The book’s photos say it all. Greece had no roads in 1932. All traffic was sea bound, irregular ferry services offered by small, local companies. 

Somewhere in Thesali - Mules and Camels were still the main means of Transportation 1932

Also found photos from Athens from the 1950s. Compared to today, traffic looks idyllic. Few cars, plenty of space, no traffic jams. Cars came only in the 1960 and 1970s to Greece.

Excelsior Hotel at the Omonia Square in the 1950s

At the same time, the Greek government started to planning a network of highways. But due to lack of finance, these projects progressed slowly. The admission of Greece to the European Union in 1981 brought fundamental change. The country obtained access to the European Infrastructure fund and thus found the equity needed for road projects.

The Greek National Highway Plan made "Emmental Cheese" from the Peloponnese Hills

The adoption of the EUR in 2001 accelerated the process even further. Now Greece was able to issue EUR denominated debt and inject it as equity into its transportation network.

One of the A7's elaborate Bridges - all had to be Earthquake Proof!

The result was an incredible boom in road construction. By 2020, most of the network was complete and had a length of 2’320 kilometers. It is the most advanced in the Eastern Mediterranean - even though Turkey makes big efforts to catch up. So far, the new roads have not yielded the expected economic growth. I actually wonder whether they ever will. France built an elaborate road network in its remoter parts – but job creation has not followed. People continue to move to the few large agglomerations where industrial and service clusters with critical mass exist. This seems to be true for Greece too. Athens continues to dominate. 30% of all Greek people are living in the capital city.

We will have to see whether Greece can absorbe the future maintenance cost of its large highway network. A bridge needs to be rebuilt, a tunnel to be refurbished every twenty year. There are some not so shining examples in Europe. Rising maintenance cost can indeed cripple a road network when it does not generate enough revenue. We have seen this in Italy with the E25 Polcevera Highway Bridge which spectacularly collapsed on 14 Aug 2018.

Another Section of the A7 winding its Way elegantly through the Peloponnese Mountains.

I hope the Greek Government learnt from the Italian experience. That so much of the peninsula has become easily accessible is a huge plus for tourism and us visitors. It should stay this way.