Auto-estrada A-17 (Portigal)

Roads in Portugal are defined by the Plano Rodoviário Nacional (PRN, en, National Road Plan), which describes the existing and planned network of Portuguese roads. The present plan in force is the 2000 National Road Plan (PRN 2000), approved in 1998. It replaced PRN 1985, which itself had replaced PRN 1945.

The Portuguese road infrastructure was considered the best in Europe and the second best in the world by the World Economic Forum in its ''Global Competitiveness Report for 2014–2015''. In the 2017–2018 report, it was considered to 8th best in the world. Nevertheless, all of these data were obtained through nothing more than an opinion survey of selected business executives.

The scenic road between Peso da Régua and Pinhão, in Trás-os-Montes region, was considered the world's best driving road, according to the Avis Driving Index. This road is a section of the N 222 which follows the Douro Valley.

History of road classification in Portugal

First road plans

The first road plans in Portugal date back from 1843 and 1848, and were based on 18th century plans which prioritized connections between Lisbon and strategic points of the country, and as a support for fluvial routes. The planned network was classified in 1850 into ''estradas'' (roads) and ''caminhos'' (paths), with the ''estradas'' being classified as 1st and 2nd class. ''Caminhos'' were routes of merely local interest.

In 1862, the existing and planned roads were classified as 1st class roads or ''estradas reais'' (royal roads), 2nd class roads or ''estradas distritais'' (district roads), and ''estradas municipais'' (municipal roads). The ''estradas reais'' were those with direct or indirect (via railways, for instance) origin in Lisbon and were managed by the State. The ''estradas distritais'' were managed by the districts while ''estradas municipais'' were managed by the municipalities.

With the abolition of the monarchy in 1910, the ''estradas reais'' were renamed ''estradas nacionais'' (national roads).

In 1913, the Law of 22 February established a commission to study a new classification of the roads and propose guidelines to establish that classification. However, despite these efforts, many routes were not clearly classified and the condition of most roads was chaotic. Widespread use of the automobile in the 1920s created new pressure for reforming the Portuguese road network.

In 1926, under the Ditadura Nacional regime, a provisional General Plan of National Roads of 1st and 2nd class was established by Decree  12,100 of 31 July 1926, according to what was previewed by the Law of 22 February 1913. Both the 1st and 2nd class roads would be designated ''estradas nacionais'', with the term ''estrada distrital'' disappearing. They were designated EN xx-x (for ''estradas nacionais'' followed by the number of the road and its class). This plan established 23 roads of 1st class (designated EN 1-1ª to EN 23-1ª) and 112 roads of 2nd class (designated EN 1-2ª to EN 112-2ª). The definite General Plan of National Roads was approved by Decree No. 16,075 of 30 September 1928. It kept the 23 1st class roads and the 112 2nd class ones, but some roads were rerouted, extended, or truncated.

The 1st class national roads included in the 1928 General Plan of National Roads were the following:

By Law No. 3,969 of 20 July 1927, the Junta Autónoma das Estradas (JAE, en, Autonomous Road Board) was created to study the condition of the Portuguese road network. The preliminary report was clear to state that from the of the planned national road network, were to be completed and from the already built, were in an almost-ruined condition.

In 1933, roads were reclassified as ''estradas nacionais'' (1st and 2nd class), ''estradas municipais'' and ''caminhos públicos'' (public paths), with the latter two under municipal management.

1945 National Road Plan

In 1933, the entire (i.e. built and planned) network of national roads totalled . The state recognized the importance of the road network and, in 1945, created the first real national road plan, the ''Plano Rodoviário Nacional de 1945'' (PRN 45), defined in Law No. 34,593 of 11 May 1945. This plan comprised a national road network of .

PRN 1945 classified the national road network in ''Rede Fundamental'' (Fundamental Network) and ''Rede Complementar'' (Complementary Network). The latter served to support the fundamental network. Roads were classified according to the following:

* Fundamental Network: Estradas nacionais (EN or N)
** 1st-class roads:
*** Principal routes (''itinerários principais''): to
*** Other first-class roads: to
** 2nd-class roads:
*** to
* Complementary Network: Estradas nacionais (EN or N)
** 3rd-class roads:
*** to
*** . Branch roads, emerging from a determined road, which was identified by ''X'', with a number of order according to point of origin, identified by ''Y''. The road with most branch roads was , originally with 16 roads numbered to . (In 1961 and were renamed as and , respectively. However, later and were created, so N 1 resumed the record for 16 branches). These roads were planned to cover distances rarely longer than , closing some road grids, and connecting locations of some demographic importance which are not covered by the "parent" road such as less-important border crossings, railway stations, and seaports. There were 438 branch roads.

The National Roads Statutes were subsequently approved in 1949.

In 1961, separate legislation (Law No. 2110 of 19 August 1961) on municipal roads defined new guidelines on construction, maintenance, and commercialization of these roads, and those were classified as following:

* Estradas municipais (EM or M):
** –, following a district sequence, so the sequence 501 and over was repeated in every district. Municipal Roads could have also Branch Roads, following the same rules as for National Roads
* Caminhos públicos or, from 1961, caminhos municipais (CM)
** and on, with the same numbering rules as Municipal Roads

The Main Roads could be, by law, upgraded to 4 lanes with central separation, if necessary. In fact this happened before PRN 1945, with the N7 motorway (now the A5) between Lisbon and the National Stadium completed in 1944, and in 1961 with the first of N1 motorway (now A1) between Lisbon and Vila Franca de Xira. The first urban highways were built in the 1960s. Nevertheless, most motorways built before 1985 had no number at all.

The road classes were distinguished using colour codes: red for first class, blue for second class, green for thirrd class, yellow for municipal roads, and brown for municipal paths. These colours were applied as the basis of the location markers and occasionally in the background of the road numbers. The numbering distribution for main roads was according to the importance of its route in the network, and for N101 and over were numbered in a north-to-south fashion.

The length of the roads had no relation with its class (except for branch roads, which were usually short), with existing 3rd-class roads longer than , and main roads with as short as , like the N7 highway, now part of A5. The longest road of the 1945 Plan was N2, connecting Chaves to Faro, extending for .

According to PRN 1945, there were 18 Main Roads, designated N1 through N18.

1985 National Road Plan

From the 1960s, many routes were assumed to be somewhat outdated, so in 1972, Brisa was created to manage a projected network of motorways, which by that time didn't reach a length of . New sections of motorways were then built in the 1970s and the early 1980s, like the Vila Franca de Xira–Carregado (1977), Carregado–Aveiras de Cima (1980), Condeixa-a-Nova– Mealhada (1982, which permitted bypassing the city centre of Coimbra), Santa Maria da Feira

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