Europe's £350 million bridge that bypasses a whole country and is two miles longer than the Channel Tunnel

Croatia was left cut in half by a 12-mile stretch of coastline that was awarded to Bosnia and Herzegovina after the collapse of the former Yugoslavia, leading to the construction of the Peljesac Bridge which opened to traffic in 2022

The fragmentation of the former Yugoslavia into seven smaller republics in the 1990s resulted in a 12-mile stretch of coastline being allocated to Bosnia and Herzegovina, encapsulating the city of Neum. This corridor effectively bisected Croatia and its 4,000 miles of coastline, with Dubrovnik on one side and Split on the other.

This setup posed difficulties for tourists wishing to visit the stunning medieval walled city, made famous by HBO's Game of Thrones, as travelling along the Croatian coast necessitated crossing two international borders within just 5.6 miles. In 1996, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia signed the Neum Agreement, allowing Croatia passage through Neum, but this agreement was never ratified.

For many years, security was relaxed, with tour buses able to traverse Neum without stopping. However, when Croatia joined the European Union in 2013, stricter border security was introduced, leading to lengthy traffic queues during the summer months.

With Croatia set to join the Schengen Area in 2023, checks are expected to become even more rigorous and time-consuming, with checks at both ends rather than just upon exiting. Consequently, someone travelling from Dubrovnik to mainland Croatia via Neum would undergo three separate border checks: a Croatian (Schengen) exit check, a Bosnian-Herzegovinian entry check, and a Croatian (Schengen) entry check.

Croatia has constructed a 2,400-metre bridge from Komarna on the northern mainland to the southeastern semi-exclave, the Peljesac peninsula, bypassing Neum entirely. The move sparked protests from Bosnia-Herzegovina, who argued it could complicate shipping traffic if Neum ever becomes a major port city, reports the Express.

However, for now, the nation's only sea access remains a quiet beach resort town. The construction of the Pelješac Bridge began in 2007 but was halted due to the global financial crisis.

In June 2017, The European Commission announced that £297 million would be made available for the bridge and its supporting infrastructure, covering 85 percent of the total construction costs. The China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) won the bid to construct the bridge in January 2018, quoting nearly £232 million.

Construction resumed in July 2018 and the bridge was connected three years later. The Pelješac Bridge and its access roads opened for traffic on July 26, 2022, with the Ston bypass road opening in April 2023, allowing buses, heavy trucks and those carrying hazardous loads to use the bridge.

The original design of the bridge in 2007 featured a main span of 568 metres, but this was later modified. The final construction resulted in a multi-span cable-stayed bridge with a total length of 2,404 metres, consisting of 13 spans.

Seven of these are cable-stayed, including five central spans measuring 285 metres each and two outer spans of 203.5 metres each. Two pylons situated around the 200-metre by 55-metre navigation channel stand at 98 metres above sea level and 222 metres above the seabed.

The project sparked controversy among Croatian environmental activists due to concerns over potential harm to marine life in the Bay of Mali Ston and mariculture, including fish farms. In October 2015, it was confirmed that a cross-border consultation examining the bridge's impact had been conducted.

Traffic flow on the bridge experiences significant seasonal variations, with the highest number of crossings occurring during the summer months. In August 2022, approximately 455,000 vehicles crossed the bridge. By late June 2023, the bridge had seen two million crossings, and this figure rose to three million by September.