The road to success, it is often said, is always under construction—and nowhere is that truer than the Morava Corridor project in Serbia. Since breaking ground just five years ago, the Bechtel-ENKA joint venture team has made substantial progress. Yesterday, they reached another milestone: the opening of an additional 30km of the road to traffic. With more than half of the 112km Morava Motorway complete, residents and businesses have already begun enjoying faster and easier commutes.
Comprehensive connectivity is at the heart of the Serbian government’s bold vision for the motorway. This east-west artery is designed to improve the flow of commerce within Serbia and across its borders, linking to Pan-European corridors in Hungary and North Macedonia, while bolstering economic growth and tourism. Once completed, it will stretch beyond the physical environment, too: Embedded within the motorway’s infrastructure will be a state-of-the-art 5G fiber optic network, literally paving the way for a more connected Serbia.
The greatest challenge with any major infrastructure project, however, is reconciling a visionary concept with the hard physical realities of engineering, without compromising its ambition. The Morava Corridor project has provided no shortage of obstacles to this end: from navigating flood plains to procuring materials to unifying a diverse team—all on an accelerated timeline. Fortunately, in addition to our close collaboration with the Serbian government, we have developed a proven method for solving these complex, often novel problems: building our own solutions at scale.
The Project within a Project
A critical priority for the motorway is its longevity. The Serbian government sought an asset that would endure for a century, keeping the region connected long into the future. However, the route’s terrain posed a challenge, cutting across a section of the flood-prone Morava River. As a result, the team had to mitigate flood risks to the road and the local community.
Bechtel-ENKA accomplished both by launching a ‘project within a project.’ This entailed building extensive flood protection measures such as river diversions, dikes, and even a brand-new riverbed. Our team also took extra measures to implement environmental protections: We built 236km of drainage systems—complete with oil separators to improve run-off water quality—and a network of guardrails and wire fencing to protect passenger safety and local wildlife.
The robustness of these measures helped achieve a dual aim: ensuring the motorway’s durability while preventing floods that have troubled the region for centuries. This also helped Bechtel-ENKA earn the 2024 Environmental Stewardship Award from the International Road Federation—another testament to our ‘project within a project’ approach.
In-House Integration
Every infrastructure project is a race against the clock. Lengthy delays don’t just cost money; they can quickly undermine public confidence and thwart well-supported initiatives. Frequently, at the root of these setbacks are supply chain bottlenecks and material shortages.
Bechtel-ENKA is sidestepping these pitfalls using a self-sufficiency model. We built our own quarries, our own test laboratory—the first one of its kind to be approved in the Balkans—and our own fully operational pre-cast concrete yards. These end-to-end in-house capabilities have allowed us to extract materials, test and certify them on-site, and assemble massive stretches of motorway while minimizing our reliance on unpredictable external supply chains. It has ultimately saved us time, helped us meet major milestones, and allowed us to work more efficiently—key advantages for any project.
As engineering, construction, and procurement contractors, our expansive scope made this approach possible. It continues to prove critical to our project’s success, while creating a model for the future. As geopolitical and economic uncertainty persists around the globe, the infrastructure projects that embrace self-sufficiency will thrive.
A Culture of Teamwork
Of all the solutions we put forth on this project, the most foundational to our success is our culture of teamwork. That begins with the strong relationship we’ve forged with our customer. Throughout the project, we’ve worked closely with officials from the Serbian government to carry out their vision with the highest standards for safety and quality. Together, we collaborated on efforts to educate the community about the benefits of the motorway and coordinate logistics, so construction would create minimal disruptions.
We are also drawing on our long history in Central Europe—where we’ve built almost 700km of motorways—to engage the local economy sourcing materials from Serbian businesses and hiring local workers. Currently, we employ around 1,600 Serbian nationals, as well as colleagues from several different countries and nationalities.
To work together as one team, we are committed to improving every detail of the employee experience. That means doing everything from identifying the best communication channels to recreation areas to upskilling local workers. A project is only as good as its people—and our emphasis from day one has been ensuring ours are set up for success.
All Roads Lead to a Bright Future
The Morava Motorway will serve millions of Serbians as a strategically important piece of modern infrastructure. But it also serves as a model of how teamwork and innovation can deliver a transformative vision in the face of real-world constraints. By combining a project-within-a-project approach, in-house solutions, and a unified team culture, Bechtel-ENKA has demonstrated that real ingenuity starts at home.