Greek National Road 8a ( el, Εθνική Οδός 8a, abbreviated as EO8a) was a

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or '' toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implement ...

in the

Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean ...

Peloponnese The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridge which ...

and

West Greece Western Greece Region ( el, Περιφέρεια Δυτικής Ελλάδας, translit=Periféria Dhitikís Elládhas, ) is one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It comprises the western part of continental Greece and the north ...

regions. It connected

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

with the cities of

Corinth Corinth ( ; el, Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, ) is the successor to an ancient city, and is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part ...

and

Patras ) , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 = , demographics1_info2 = , timezone1 = EET , utc_offset1 = +2 ...

. It was built in the 1960s as a replacement for the old National Road 8 as the major route to the Peloponnese, and bypasses most towns. The National Road 8a has gradually been upgraded to a motorway, the A8. Since April 2017, the complete length of the A8 motorway has been operational.Olympia Odos, the motorway from Eleusis to Patras, in operation
on ypodomes.gr The EO8a started east of Eleusis, where it branched off the old GR-8 as a limited-access

dual carriageway A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...

. Between

Megara Megara (; el, Μέγαρα, ) is a historic town and a municipality in West Attica, Greece. It lies in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, before being take ...

and

Kineta Kineta ( el, Κινέτα) is a beach town in West Attica, Greece. It is part of the municipality Megara. Geography Kineta is situated on the northern coast of the Saronic Gulf, south of the Geraneia mountains. The rocks of Kakia Skala lie to ...

the motorway passed through several tunnels. Its western end was the interchange with the A5 motorway, near

Rio Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

, northeast of

Patras ) , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 = , demographics1_info2 = , timezone1 = EET , utc_offset1 = +2 ...

. The total length of the route was 215 km. The eastern section, between Eleusis and Corinth, was part of European route E94. The western section, between Corinth and Rio, was part of

European route E65 European route E65 is a north-south Class-A European route that begins in Malmö, Sweden and ends in Chania, Greece. The road is about in length. Route * **: Malmö ( ) – Ystad *Gap (Baltic Sea) ** Ystad - Świnoujście * **: � ...

.UNECE document ECE/TRANS/SC.1/384 "Road Transport Infrastructure"; 14 March 2008
(

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

file, official E route list starting at p. 14)

Construction

Greek Motorway 8 (National Road 8A) - Korinthos Exit

The total length of the EO8a was delivered gradually between 1962 and 1973, replacing the older EO8. The section which first opened in November 1962, was the

–

route, forming part of European route E94 (although the section

–

(

Kakia Skala Kakia (Ancient Greek: Κακίαν) (meaning bad and evil), the Greek goddess of vice and moral badness, abominations (presumably, sin or crime), was depicted as a vain, plump, and heavily made-up woman dressed in revealing clothes. She was pre ...

pass) opened in late 1964, with motorway characteristics). The section Corinth–

Patras ) , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 = , demographics1_info2 = , timezone1 = EET , utc_offset1 = +2 ...

was the next to follow in 1969, as a 14m width undivided road (except for the

Aigio Aigio, also written as ''Aeghion, Aegion, Aegio, Egio'' ( el, Αίγιο, Aígio, ; la, Aegium), is a town and a former municipality in Achaea, West Greece, on the Peloponnese. Since the 2011 local government reform, it is part of the municipal ...

bypass, which opened in 1973 also with motorway characteristics). Throughout the 1990s, the E94 part of the route was upgraded to motorway standards; while between 1999 and 2006, further upgrades took place at the Kakia Skala pass, converting a rather narrow and hazardous section of motorway into a state-of-the-art modern motorway, with 3 lanes per direction and a network of five tunnels and several bridges. Between 1997 and 2015, the expanded section ended near

, from which it continued as a limited-access

single carriageway A single carriageway (British English) or Undivided highway (American English) is a road with one, two or more lanes arranged within a one carriageway with no central reservation to separate opposing flows of traffic. A single-track road has a s ...

. In 2015 the upgraded section ended near Zevgolateio and in 2016 it ended at

Kiato Kiato ( el, Κιάτο) is a town in the northern part of Corinthia in the Peloponnese, Greece. It is the seat of the municipality of Sikyona. Kiato is situated on the Gulf of Corinth, near the mouth of the river Asopos. It has much tourist activ ...

. The remainder, between Kiato and

, was opened in April 2017, and the EO8a has ceased to exist.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:8a, Greek National Road Roads in Western Greece Interstate 8A Roads in Attica