INTERNATIONAL E-ROAD NETWORK

Introduction Index

The European road network is the responsibility of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). This is stated in the European Agreement on Main International Traffic Arteries (AGR), done at Geneva on 15 November 1975. At the UNECE website (www.unece.org) one can find more information.

Elbruz wanted to give a clear and complete overview of the existing network. Until now such a overview was not available. The overview can be accessed via the Index. This page provides some further explanation.

The index lists all E-road numbers divided into different types. The types are descibed below. Every number in the index is a link to a table consisting of the data for that particular road.

The UNECE has provided the list of E-roads with reference places. These reference places are important cities, border towns or places where more roads connect. A reference place is not necessarily situated directly at the E-road. The UNECE data has been enriched by country codes, distance and cumulative distance between reference places, and connections to other E-roads.

At the moment the E-road network is expanded into Central Asia and the Caucusus. This and other proposed changes are not yet incorporated.

Road types (Source: UNECE)

1. Reference roads and intermediate roads, called class-A roads, have two-digit numbers; branch, link and connecting roads, called class-B roads, have three-digit numbers.
2. North-south orientated reference roads have two-digit odd numbers terminating in the figure 5 and increasing from west to east. East-west orientated reference roads have two-digit even numbers terminating in the figure 0 and increasing from north to south. Intermediate roads have respectively two-digit odd and two-digit even numbers comprised within the numbers of the reference roads between which they are located. Class-B roads have three-digit numbers, the first digit being that of the nearest reference road to the north of the B-road concerned, and the second digit being that of the nearest reference road to the west of the B-road concerned; the third digit is a serial number.
3. North-south oriented class-A roads located eastward from road E 99 have three-digit odd numbers from 101 to 129. Other rules mentioned in paragraph 2 above apply to these roads.

Explanatory notes

E53

North-south intermediate road

The countries are indicated by their license plate code. The list of license plate codes can be found below.

The names of the original places have been changed if necessary. These changes concern extensions (Altenmarkt im Pongau instead of Altenmarkt, Sanli Urfa instead of S. Urfa) and spelling changes. Accents have been used as much as possible (Ålborg instead of Aalborg). This applies also for the transcription of the cyrillic placenames. Therefore Đakovo instead of Djakovo and Šumen instead of Choumen. For the Greek placenames the suffix "n" and "s" are not used. So Trípoli instead of Trípolis and Iráklio instead of Iráklion. There is no guarantee that these rules have been followed consequently and without errors.

One reference place has been changed. The UNECE lists Izmir as E80 reference. This has to be Izmit.

The section Strasbourg - Appenweier is 22 km. The section Appenweier - Karlsruhe is 69 km. The cumulative distance (Strasbourg - Karlsruhe) is 91 km. The distance figure is the place-to-place distance. The cumulative distance is the sum of all section distances. The place-to-place distance is normally higher than the real section distance as it includes the distance from the E-road to the city centre. This implies that the listed cumulative distance will be substantially higher than the actual cumulative distance.

The connection field indicates connections to other E-roads. These are not necessarily direct connections. It only implies that the place is a reference for all mentioned roads.

The »-sign denotes that Dover - Calais is a watercrossing. A watercrossing is not necessarily a ferry or a sea crossing. Furthermore the section can run partially over land, e.g. Rødby-Lübeck. The distance of a watercrossing is calculated as a normal section.

The "via" means that this section crosses an extra border which is not indicated by the reference places.

The *-signs indicate that a non-member state is involved. Normally this is an end point. Only the E851 is a road traversing Albania .

License plate codes