IN Brief:
- Shandong Hi-Speed Group has won a €1.3bn contract for an 83km Serbian expressway section.
- The route will run from Belgrade towards Sumadija and Pomoravlje.
- The section forms part of a planned 125km route connecting to Pan-European Corridor X by 2035.
Shandong Hi-Speed Group has won a €1.3bn contract to build an 83km section of expressway in Serbia, extending south from Belgrade towards Sumadija and Pomoravlje.
The project is the first section of a planned 125km expressway that is intended to connect with Pan-European Corridor X by 2035. It forms part of the Serbia 2035 development plan and has been named after Đorđe Petrović, the leader of the first Serbian uprising.
The route will add to Serbia’s strategic road network, strengthening links between the capital and central regions. For infrastructure planners, it adds another large transport corridor to the south-eastern European pipeline, where road, rail, energy, and logistics projects continue to shape national growth strategies and regional connectivity.
Shandong Hi-Speed Group is a Chinese state-owned infrastructure business with operations covering transport infrastructure investment and operation, engineering construction, technical services, and related sectors. Its latest Serbian road award adds to a wider pattern of Chinese contractor involvement in the country’s infrastructure market.
China has invested heavily in Serbia’s economy over the past decade, with infrastructure loans accounting for a substantial share of that exposure. Shandong Hi-Speed Group has previously won a €138m contract to build the New Belgrade railway station, while another Chinese state-owned contractor, China Communications, is involved in work on a 22km EU-funded railway bypass around the southern Serbian city of Niš.
The expressway award sits at the intersection of transport planning, construction capacity, and international infrastructure finance. For Serbia, the route supports long-term efforts to improve movement between Belgrade and central regions, while strengthening future connections to the wider European corridor network. For Shandong Hi-Speed Group, it provides another major European road reference in a market where transport infrastructure continues to attract external delivery partners.
Road schemes of this scale carry a broad construction scope before detailed section designs are considered. Earthworks, bridges, interchanges, drainage, pavement construction, retaining structures, utilities, environmental mitigation, temporary traffic arrangements, access roads, asphalt production, materials logistics, and site compounds all have to be coordinated across a long linear corridor.
The construction footprint can be as challenging as the engineering. Routes passing through varied terrain, settlements, agricultural land, or environmentally sensitive areas require careful sequencing, access planning, stakeholder engagement, and controls around spoil, water, noise, and traffic disruption. On corridor schemes, the programme is often shaped as much by permissions, land, and logistics as by civil engineering output.
The 2035 connection target places programme discipline under close scrutiny. Long road corridors depend on land acquisition, permitting, environmental controls, financing, design approvals, utility diversions, materials supply, and local workforce availability. Large international contractors can bring scale and experience, although local supply chains, governance, and community impact still determine delivery pace.
European road investment remains active alongside the larger rail and energy pipelines. STRABAG’s €177m D35 motorway contract in the Czech Republic includes bridges, noise barriers, drainage, utility relocations, and digital construction methods, showing how safety, freight movement, regional growth, and corridor resilience continue to drive road schemes across the continent.
Transport investment is also advancing across rail, with Feronord’s Swedish East Link rail package adding another example of corridor-scale construction work in northern Europe. The balance between road and rail varies by country, but the delivery challenge is consistent: governments want greater capacity and resilience, while construction markets must supply the labour, materials, engineering control, and project governance needed to build at scale.
For Serbia, the expressway will be judged by how effectively it improves national connectivity and integrates with the wider corridor plan. For Shandong Hi-Speed Group, the contract strengthens its European infrastructure presence at a time when international contractor roles remain commercially attractive, operationally demanding, and closely watched.
The next phase will move into mobilisation, design coordination, local supply-chain engagement, and programme development. On a project of this size, early organisation will shape how quickly the contract award becomes visible progress along the route.
