Motorway 2 (Greece)

A2 motorway
Αυτοκινητόδρομος 2
Egnatia odos Εγνατία Οδός Via Egnatia
Route of Egnatia Odos
Route information
Part of E90
Length:	670 km (420 mi)
Major junctions
From:	Igoumenitsa
To:	Kipoi
Location
Regions:	Epirus, Macedonia, Thrace
Highway system
Motorways in Greece

Egnatia Odos or Egnatia Motorway (Greek: Εγνατία Οδός, often translated as Via Egnatia, code: A2) is the Greek part of European route . It is a motorway in Greece that extends from the western port of Igoumenitsa to the eastern Greek–Turkish border at Kipoi. It runs a total of 670 km (420 mi). The project began in 1994 and was completed in 2009; it was managed by the company Egnatia Odos, S.A.

The route traverses the mountainous Greek regions of Epirus and Macedonia, crossing the Pindos and Vermio mountain ranges, which posed formidable engineering challenges. It includes 76 tunnels (with a combined length of 99 km / 61.5 miles) and 1,650 bridges. It is a limited-access highway with sophisticated electronic surveillance measures, SCADA controls for the lighting/tunnel ventilation, and advanced vehicle collision absorption measures.

Part of its length, a section of about 360 km (220 mi) from Evros to Thessaloniki, parallels the ancient Roman Via Egnatia, which ran from modern Durrës in Albania to Thessaloniki and thence to Byzantium (now Istanbul, Turkey). The project has therefore been dubbed a modern Via Egnatia (in Greek, Egnatia Odos / Εγνατία Οδός). However, the parallel is not exact; the original Via Egnatia was much longer (1,120 km / 696 miles) and its western section, from Thessaloniki to the Adriatic Sea, ran much further north than the modern road.