Greek National Road 1 is the longest highway and the principal north-south road connection in
Greece. It connects the country's capital
Athens with its
Thessalian and
Macedonian provinces and with its second largest city
Thessaloniki. It is part of the "PATHE" road axis (Patra, Athens, Thessaloniki, Evzoni)
[1]The highway begins at Kifissou Avenue, Athens, just north of the Bay of Phaliro, and continues northward to Efzoni, on the border with the country's northern neighbour, the Republic of Macedonia, where it continues as the M1. Before the European routes numbers were changed, the northern part from Efzoni to GR-2 was E5N. Today, the entire road is part of E75. The task of maintaining and charging for parts of the motorway has recently been ceded to private consortiums, originally as part of the deal for the construction of the Ionia Odos. Each of them currently enforces a different tolling policy; from Athens to Maliakos Bay drivers pay twice northbound and once southbound, while on the part from northern Maliakos up to the intersection with E90, called the Aegean Motorway, drivers pay four times on both directions. Considering its position, it is also vulnerable to, mainly, agricultural protestors blocking its traffic flow.
The part west of downtown Athens runs over the Cephisus river and Kifissou Avenue. From north of the boundary of Voiotia - Phthiotis, up to near Velestino, the tollway runs close to the coast of the Aegean Sea. It then continues north of the Tempe Valley and up to the junction of the E90. It then shares a 25&_160;km common part with Egnatia Odos / E90 (on a west-east direction), and then, at the "Axios Interchange", continues north to Evzoni and the national border. Its total length is approximately 550&_160;km.
The national road used to be entirely a 2-lane highway and ended near Katerini until 1973. The section Athens - Lamia opened in August 1962 as a 14 m width road. The section Lamia - Larissa opened in October 1967 as a 14 m width road. The section Larissa - Katerini opened in September 1959 as a 13 m width road (except the Tempi valley pass opened as 10 m road). The section Katerini - Thessaloniki opened in September 1973 as a 14 m width road. The section Axios junction - Evzoni (border) opened in July 1973. The section Axios junction - Polykastro opened as a 14 m width road, while the section Polykastro - Evzoni (border) opened as a highway.
