Georgia’s main road from Tbilisi to the Black Sea has to cross the Likhi range, the ridge that divides the country into its eastern and western halves. It does so at the Rikoti pass, and for more than forty years it went through a single tunnel, opened in 1982.
Since 30 December 2025 the crossing has been something else: 52 kilometres of four-lane highway with 51 tunnels and 97 bridges. The government says the new road is eight kilometres shorter than the old one and roughly halves the time it takes to cross. It did not make the coast a short drive from Tbilisi. It took out the part of the drive that used to set its pace.
The road over the pass, before
The Rikoti tunnel is 1,722 metres long, and when it opened in 1982 it was the longest road tunnel entirely within Georgia (Georgia Today). West of it, the old road down towards Zestaponi was a curvy two-lane road through forested gorges, with little chance to pass slower vehicles and villages strung along the way, as the S1 highway’s encyclopaedia entry still describes it.
By the government’s count, 60 percent of the country’s cargo moves on this road (Imereti regional administration), and the Asian Development Bank put traffic on the East-West Highway at more than 13,000 vehicles a day in 2019. Of the whole corridor, the Rikoti section is the one a 2023 World Bank project paper calls the most complex.
Rebuilding it around live traffic had its own costs. In spring 2023 a landslide damaged a newly built tunnel and shut the pass completely from 30 March to 8 April. When it reopened, cars could cross only between seven in the morning and seven in the evening, without stopping and under patrol supervision, while lorries took the night (JAM News).
What was built, and who paid for it
The new road runs 52 kilometres from Chumateleti, just east of the old tunnel, to Argveta, near Zestaponi, which it bypasses. It has four lanes throughout, 51 tunnels and 97 bridges (Civil Georgia). The longest tunnel is a new 1.8-kilometre bore beside the old Rikoti tunnel. The longest bridge is 1,362 metres.
It was built in four sections by four Chinese contractors. Work began in 2019 and was meant to finish in 2023. Officials put the cost of design and construction at about GEL 2.6 billion, which Civil Georgia converted to roughly USD 968 million at the opening.
The money came as loans from three development banks, alongside the Georgian state budget. The World Bank and the European Investment Bank co-financed the section from Chumateleti to Khevi, and the EIB also financed Ubisa to Shorapani. The Asian Development Bank lent $300 million for the 12 kilometres between Khevi and Ubisa, and about $278 million, in euros, for Shorapani to Argveta.
Opened in stages, finished in 2025
The road opened in pieces, which is why advice written about it over the past three years reads so differently from one year to the next.
- 28 October 2023. 27 kilometres between Khevi and Shorapani, with 65 bridges and 38 tunnels. The government said it cut 25 minutes from the crossing (Imereti regional administration).
- April 2024. The 9-kilometre Zestaponi bypass, which took through traffic out of the town.
- August 2024. The new 1,800-metre tunnel beside the old one, which then went in for renovation.
- October 2024. Another 12 kilometres, leaving four to build.
- 30 December 2025. The last four kilometres, and the full 52.
Since that last opening, the high-speed road from Tbilisi to Samtredia, west of Kutaisi, bypasses the towns along the way, Zestaponi included.
What it changes for a trip across the country
The coast is still a long way off. Kutaisi is about 220 kilometres from Tbilisi and about three and a half hours by car, which makes Kutaisi a long day out rather than an easy one. Batumi is about 360 kilometres away and about five and a half hours. What changed is the middle of the drive: four lanes and tunnels where the pass used to be.
That matters most to a trip built on both ends of the country. Kakheti’s wine country lies east of Tbilisi and the Black Sea far to the west, so a week that takes in the cellars, the capital and the coast has to cross Georgia at least once. That crossing is still a long day. It is no longer a long day with a mountain pass in the middle.
We price a day like that at the day rate, because the car and driver are committed for the day: 1 350 ₾ for the V-Class, 1 500 ₾ for the S-Class and 2 500 ₾ for either Maybach, for eight to nine hours door to door. A longer day is quoted with the extra hours already included, and every fare is confirmed in writing before the car is dispatched. The routes are set out on the day trips from Tbilisi page.
For one or two people with light bags, the train is often the better way to the coast. Since track work in summer 2026 it takes about four hours, down from five and a half (Georgia Today). The four ways from Tbilisi to Batumi compares it with the car, the plane and the bus.
The western airports, and flying open-jaw
The road also makes Kutaisi a more workable way into a trip based in Tbilisi. Kutaisi International handled 1.82 million passengers in 2025, up 6 percent (GNTA), and since December 2025 the main road from Kutaisi to the capital has been four-lane highway the whole way.
Flying into one airport and out of the other removes a crossing of the country entirely. Choosing between the Georgian airports makes that case, and the roads out of Kutaisi cover the arrival itself.
The flat airport transfer fare covers Tbilisi’s own airport and the city. A pickup at Kutaisi is a long-distance route, quoted with the extra hours included and confirmed in writing before the car is dispatched. For a guest landing in Tbilisi and heading straight for the sea, the Tbilisi airport to Batumi transfer works through the timing.
What the new road does not change
Winter still counts here. Georgia’s winter-tyre rule, in force since January 2024, lists the S1 from the Rikoti tunnel west to Tseva among the roads where every wheel must carry winter tyres from 1 December to 1 March, and in heavy snow or ice the Interior Ministry can require chains as well (Government Resolution No. 526). The same list covers the Military Highway between Mleta and Kobi, which no tunnel on the east-west road has made any easier.
The new road does not reach the mountains either. Mestia is still too far to drive there and back in a day, so we quote it in writing, in advance, as a multi-day booking. Svaneti by road covers the drive itself.
And it stops short of the sea. West of Samtredia, the four-lane road towards Batumi is still being finished: 42.5 of the 52 kilometres between Samtredia and Grigoleti were open by July 2026, and the last 9.5 are due in 2027 (Imedi).
The pass that used to decide how a crossing of Georgia went is now 52 kilometres of tunnels and bridges. If you would like a day to the coast or the west costed, write to booking@soitblack.com.