A Pricey Drive Down Montenegro’s Highway ‘From Nowhere to Nowhere’

The Montenegrin leader says that an almost $1 billion Chinese-built highway approved by his predecessor has badly strained the country’s finances.

MATESEVO, Montenegro — One of the world’s most expensive roads slices through the mountains of Montenegro, soaring over deep gorges on towering bridges, before reaching its destination: a muddy field outside a hamlet with a few dozen houses, many of them empty. Mirka Adzic, a resident of the hamlet, Matesevo (population: around 15), said she was delighted there would soon be a modern expressway so close to home as it would save her from having to take a treacherous mountain track, previously the only access to the outside world. But, much as she likes the new Chinese-built expressway — which is supposed to open in November at a cost of nearly $1 billion after six years of hazardous work, two years behind schedule — she doesn’t really understand it.