Appalachian Development Highway System

The Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS) is part of the Appalachian Regional Commission in the United States. See: current map of the ADHS.

History

In 1964, the President’s Appalachian Regional Commission (PARC) reported to Congress that economic growth in Appalachia would not be possible until the region’s isolation had been overcome. Because the cost of building highways through Appalachia’s mountainous terrain was high, the region's local residents had never been served by adequate roads. The existing network of narrow, winding, two-lane roads, snaking through narrow stream valleys or over mountaintops, was slow to drive, unsafe, and in many places worn out. The nation's Interstate Highway System, though extensive through the region, was designed to serve cross-country traffic rather than local residents.

The PARC report and the Appalachian governors placed top priority on a modern highway system as the key to economic development. As a result, Congress authorized the construction of the Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS) in the Appalachian Development Act of 1965. The ADHS was designed to generate economic development in previously isolated areas, supplement the interstate system, and provide access to areas within the region as well as to markets in the rest of the nation. The system has served its intended purpose to varying degrees of success.

European route E73

The European route E 73 is a Class-A north-south European route that connects the central part of the continent, specifically Hungary and eastern Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Adriatic Sea in the area of the port of Ploče. This 702-kilometre (436 mi) route is also designated as the Pan-European Corridor Vc, a branch of the fifth Pan-European corridor. The route largely consists of two-lane roads with at-grade intersections, although in 2000s, approximately one third of the route was upgraded to motorway standards. The remainder of the route is currently being upgraded in all the countries spanned. The longest part of this corridor goes through Bosnia and Herzegovina and is widely touted as a road instrumental to the development of the country. The road also serves as the shortest connection of the eastern and southern parts of Croatia.

Route description

The European route E73 is a part of the International E-road network, 702 km (436 mi) long, connecting parts of Hungary and Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Adriatic Sea coast near the port of Ploče. The route is a Class A intermediate north-south road, consisting of 275 km (171 mi) of motorways, and a substantial proportion of two-lane roads with at-grade intersections. The E73 starts at the Budapest ring motorway, providing connection to the Hungarian motorway network, as well as the European routes E60, E71 and E75, at an interchange with the M6 motorway taking the E73 route south, past Dunaújváros and Szekszárd towards Bóly, where the motorway (as of August 2011) terminates, and the E73 switches to routes 57 and then 56 past Mohács to Udvar/Duboševica border crossing where the route crosses to Croatia. The Hungarian section of the E73 is 196 kilometres (122 miles) long, and all but the last 20 kilometres (12 miles) has been upgraded to the motorway standards. The final section of the motorway to the Croatian border is planned to extend to a new border crossing at Ivándárda.