25 km Long Queue, 10-Hour Wait: Konavle Paralyzed
Municipal mayor activates civil protection headquarters, locals hand out sandwiches to stranded travelers, and blame for the long-neglected infrastructure of the south continues to be passed around.
Municipal mayor activates civil protection headquarters, locals hand out sandwiches to stranded travelers, and blame for the long-neglected infrastructure of the south continues to be passed around.
The situation in Konavle has become unbearable. Due to transit traffic towards Montenegro, Greece, and Albania, waits at the Karasovići border crossing have reached up to ten hours, with queues stretching an incredible 25 kilometers in recent days. Municipal mayor Božo Lasić has activated the civil protection headquarters and issued a dramatic appeal to the public, demanding urgent measures from institutions to at least alleviate daily life in the paralyzed municipality.
According to reports from the ground, the right lane of the Adriatic Highway is completely taken over by vehicles with foreign plates, and travelers have nowhere to attend to basic needs. While they wait for hours, the people of Konavle are coming to their aid: letting them into their homes, bringing water and food. According to a post on the Facebook page Zavazda Konavle, young people from Pridvorje, led by parish priest don Petar, handed out as many as 1,000 sandwiches. Meanwhile, Konavle firefighters have been distributing water to travelers trapped in the queues for days.
This morning, according to data from the Croatian Automobile Club, the situation was somewhat milder, but still far from normal. At the entrance to Croatia at the Gornji Brgat border crossing, the wait was 1 hour and 30 minutes at 8 a.m., and at Metković Doljani, half an hour. The queue on state road D8 stretched from the turnoff for Radovčići to Karasovići, and for the second night in a row, a line also formed at the turnoff for the gas station in Kupari.
Mayor Lasić, who had been warning about the issues as early as 2024 and in March 2026, as well as after the local elections in 2025, emphasizes that without the construction of a fast road, there is no permanent solution. "No evil is solely for evil," Lasić said, adding that he hopes the current crisis will finally prompt the state to act. However, his address is criticized in a column on Narod.hr by author Ivica Granić, who notes the absence of sharp criticism of those responsible in the Government and ministries, and that the activation of the civil protection headquarters seems like raising drama without actually addressing the root causes.
The problem is structural and has been known for years: the A1 motorway practically ends at Ploče or Ravča, and the continuation towards Dubrovnik has been postponed multiple times. Although HAC relaunched preliminary consultations in 2026 and increased the estimated value of the works, this is so far only preparation, not construction. A fast road through Župa Dubrovačka and Konavle, which would also connect Ruđer Bošković Airport, has been announced for decades.
While infrastructure in the north of the country is developing rapidly, such as the second tube of the Učka Tunnel that was opened to traffic and the continuation towards Matulji expected by the end of 2026, the Croatian south feels neglected. The Pelješac Bridge, although built and functional, does not solve the internal connectivity of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County nor the local congestion in Konavle, the column points out.
Particularly criticized are influential HDZ figures from the Dubrovnik area and the county: Frano Matušić, Dubravka Šuica, Nikola Dobroslavić, and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Physical Planning, Construction and State Property Branko Bačić. They are faulted for failing, despite access to national and European decision-making levels, to lobby for the continuation of the motorway and fast road for decades. "How are they not ashamed to come to Dubrovnik?" is a question that, according to the column, naturally arises from residents living with the consequences of years of neglect.
Instead of acknowledging failure, politicians resort to usual patterns: emphasizing what has been done, such as the Pelješac Bridge, and shifting responsibility to procedures, high costs, and complex circumstances. With an ironic note, Granić concludes that, besides divine providence, residents of the south are left hoping in Ana Maslać, Prime Minister Plenković's wife, as a Dubrovnik native with Herzegovinian roots who might spur the realization of some project.
