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The motorway network, and where it still breaks

Published · Updated · About 18 minutes of reading

A motorway in Bulgaria is a signed class of road, not a feeling that the carriageway is wide. This page is a reading of the named network as public reporting described it through September 2026. Openings and works move. The sign you can see is the status that counts.

Aerial view of a multi-level road interchange with looping ramps
Illustration. This photograph is not a picture of a named road in Bulgaria.

Direction signs on Bulgarian motorways are green. When the motorway ends, the road you join is something else: often a first-class road with at-grade junctions, villages, and a lower general speed. For a car, the general motorway limit described on the government information page on national traffic rules (opens in a new tab, outside bgtol) is 140 km/h. The moment the motorway sign ends, that number no longer applies, even if the asphalt still looks broad.

People sometimes talk about “the highway to Varna” or “the highway to Greece” as if each were one finished road. The named motorways below are the correction to that habit. Two of them, Trakia and Maritsa, are the pieces drivers treat as continuous. Two others, Hemus and Struma, still contain ordinary road. Europe is the short run toward Serbia. Cherno More, the Black Sea motorway, is a project people mention, not a road to put in today’s schedule.

A1

Trakia

Sofia · Plovdiv · Stara Zagora · Yambol · Burgas

Trakia is the motorway people mean when they drive from the capital toward the southern Black Sea coast. It passes Plovdiv and Stara Zagora and continues through the Yambol area to Burgas. In public reporting it is treated as a continuous motorway, on the order of 360 kilometres, which does not mean it is free of works.

In 2026 the regional development ministry described repairs on more than 150 kilometres of Trakia. A repair can close a lane, drop the signed speed, or send you off at an exit. Build the day with a stop, and read the temporary signs rather than a memory of an open road. The same corridor feeds the Maritsa motorway toward the Turkish border.

A2

Hemus

Sofia toward Veliko Tarnovo, Shumen, and Varna

Hemus is the northern motorway, meant to tie Sofia to the Varna side of the country. It is not, in 2026, one motorway you can join at the capital and leave at the coast. Sections are open from the Sofia side and on the eastern side. The middle is still ordinary road across and around the Balkan mountains.

In September 2026 the regional development minister told parliament that completion as far as Veliko Tarnovo might take about two and a half to three years, and that the whole motorway might be finished by the end of 2030 if work continued. Those are political schedules, not a description of the road you can drive tomorrow. Plan Sofia–Varna as motorway plus first-class and lesser roads, and read planning a drive before you treat a map line as motorway.

A3

Struma

Sofia · Pernik · Blagoevgrad · toward Kulata

Struma is the motorway south from Sofia toward Blagoevgrad and the Greek border at Kulata. A large part of it is open. The Kresna gorge has been the long gap: a narrow, busy, difficult section where the motorway is not the road you are on.

On 9 September 2026 the government revised its roadmap for finishing Struma, and the regional development minister had described 2031 as a realistic horizon for the Kulata-to-Sofia direction. Construction of a Kresna bypass has been reported as started, with the gorge itself still argued over for environmental reasons. None of that is a reason to schedule the gorge as motorway running. Follow the signed road, expect a lower speed, and leave time. The older companion road on this corridor is the first-class I-1.

A4

Maritsa

From the Trakia corridor toward Kapitan Andreevo

Maritsa branches from the Trakia motorway in the Chirpan / Orizovo area and runs southeast through the Haskovo and Svilengrad country to Kapitan Andreevo, the main road border with Turkey. Drivers treat it as a finished motorway approach to that border, on the order of 100 kilometres or a little more.

The border is not the end of the task. Queues, documents, and the other country’s rules sit outside the Bulgarian speed limit. A car’s Bulgarian vignette, if one is required, stops being relevant when the vehicle leaves the country. Freight is in a different charging system entirely, described on the freight page.

A6

Europe

Sofia toward Kalotina and Serbia

The Europe motorway is the short western piece from the Sofia side toward Kalotina on the Serbian border. In 2026 the regional development minister said the final section had been opened to traffic. It is a brief motorway run compared with Trakia, often well under an hour from the city before the border itself.

Kalotina is still a border. Crossing time is not driving time. The older east–west first-class road across southern Bulgaria, I-8, runs from this western border country through Sofia and Plovdiv toward Kapitan Andreevo, and parts of it now sit beside motorway rather than instead of it.

A5

Cherno More

A Black Sea motorway that is still a plan

A motorway between Varna and Burgas, Cherno More, is discussed as future construction. It is not a road to schedule as an open motorway. The coastal first-class road is I-9, a different kind of journey: towns, junctions, and holiday traffic in summer.

Express roads are a third category, with a general car limit of 120 km/h. Bulgaria has been building and rebuilding pieces, including work reported on the Mezdra–Botevgrad corridor toward northwestern Bulgaria. Classification of a section changes when it opens. Trust the sign that starts or ends the express road.

When the motorway ends

The useful habit is to know the next class of road before you need it. On a first-class road outside a town the general car limit is 90 km/h, junctions are often at grade, and overtaking uses the opposing lane. Farm traffic, buses, and a stopped lorry are normal. The car guide and the signs guide cover the rules that start to matter there.

Works are announced locally and by temporary signs. A page like this cannot list today’s closures. If a mapping app and a sign disagree, follow the sign and the person directing traffic.

This is general reading, not a clearance for a particular trip. Public statements about 2030 or 2031 are plans. They are not a description of open pavement.

After the exit

The number on the map is not the road under the tyres.

Drivers lose time in Bulgaria in a specific way: they treat the motorway number as continuous pavement. A1 Trakia is the one that most closely matches that picture, Sofia toward Burgas, on the order of 360 kilometres, treated in public reporting as a continuous motorway, with repairs reported on more than 150 kilometres of it. Continuous does not mean empty of cones. A2 Hemus is the opposite picture. The gap is still there. A ministerial remark in September 2026 about reaching Veliko Tarnovo in two and a half to three years, and a full Hemus perhaps at the end of 2030, is a remark about a schedule, not a lane you can book.

A3 Struma is the road toward the Greek border at Kulata, and it is not a motorway through the Kresna gorge. The companion there is I-1. A revised government roadmap of 9 September 2026, and a ministerial citation of about 2031, belong in the same drawer as the Hemus dates: plans. A4 Maritsa leaves the Trakia corridor around Chirpan and Orizovo and runs toward Kapitan Andreevo, a bit over 100 kilometres of motorway character in public descriptions. A6 Europe is the western piece toward Kalotina; a ministerial statement said the final section had opened. Check the sign rather than the statement if you are the person driving it. A5 Cherno More is not an alternative to I-9 yet.

I-8 is the older east–west road from Kalotina toward Kapitan Andreevo. It is useful as a name when someone says “the road to Turkey” and means the pre-motorway alignment. It is a different class of driving: villages, at-grade junctions, the general car limit of 90 km/h outside towns unless a sign says otherwise. Express roads, including works reported on the Mezdra–Botevgrad corridor, sit between those worlds, with a general car limit of 120. The class is whatever the sign that starts and ends the express road says on the day.

Sofia itself is a knot of approaches rather than a single motorway mouth. Leaving toward Burgas, toward the south, or toward the northwest are different ramps and different first kilometres. Give the departure a margin that is not the motorway’s average speed. A ring, a queue, or a works layout at the edge of the city can spend the hour you saved by leaving “on time” for a 140 km/h calculation.

When a motorway ends, three things change at once. The general car limit drops. Junctions return to grade. Overtaking uses the opposing lane again. The car guide and the signs guide are written for that moment. If a temporary yellow plate or a person in the carriageway contradicts the fixed green sign, the person and the portable sign win. This page will not.