The Rikoti motorway is finished: Tbilisi to Samtredia is now four lanes the whole way

Georgia's public broadcaster reported on 29 December 2025 that construction of the Rikoti Pass motorway was complete, with full traffic opening the next day. The section is 52 km of four-lane road, with 51 tunnels — the longest about 1.8 km — and 97 bridges, the longest about 1.36 km. It cost roughly GEL 2.6 billion, financed by the Asian Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, the World Bank and the state budget. Work began in 2019 in four lots, with parts opening progressively from 2020.

According to the same report, the new alignment is about 8 km shorter than the old pass road and roughly halves the travel time over this section. More importantly, it completes an uninterrupted four-lane route from Tbilisi to Samtredia and takes through traffic around towns such as Zestaponi. For visitors, that makes the drive from the capital to Kutaisi, and onward towards the Black Sea coast, easier and more predictable.

The road forms a large part of the East-West corridor, the E60, which carries both domestic traffic and international transit. Better road access tends to widen the catchment for western Georgian destinations — Kutaisi and Imereti for weekend trips, and the Adjara coast for longer stays — and makes it more practical to run multi-region tours that start in Tbilisi. The report also notes commercial premises built near Shrosha village for local businesses along the route.