Over 217 kilometres of roads and motorways to be opened during two years

10/11/2023Press releases

This year's main construction season is slowly coming to an end, with a total of 70.2 kilometres of roads and motorways to be put into operation in 2023. A record 147.1 kilometres of roads will be opened in 2024. In 2023 and 2024, construction of a total of 236.4 kilometres will start.

Over 217 kilometres of roads and motorways to be opened during two years

"We are continuing our record-breaking pace of the construction of motorways and first-category roads; in two years we will open for use a total of 133.5 kilometres of motorways and 83.8 kilometres of city bypasses and road relocations. During both years we will then launch 173.7 kilometres of motorways and 62.7 kilometres of category I roads," says Transport Minister Martin Kupka.

If the total is broken down into individual years, then this year 15.4 kilometres of motorways will be added to the motorway network, but in 2024 it will be 118.1 kilometres. As for category I roads, the figure is 54.8 kilometres this year and 29 kilometres in 2024.

"Next year, 20 or even 30-km sections of motorways such as the continuation of the D3 motorway in South Bohemia, the completion of the D4 motorway in Písek, sections of the D48 motorway near Bělotín and Frýdek-Místek in Moravia or the D55 motorway from Babice to Bzenec will be put into operation. Five sections of the Big City Ring Road in Brno, the Jaroměř bypass and the Mošnov bypass will also be put into operation. This year we will also open the south-eastern bypass of Havlíčkův Brod and the bypass of Bludov," added minister Kupka.

Further construction of the Prague Ring Road will start in 2024

For the next construction season, up to 93.1 kilometres of motorways are planned to be launched, such as the completion of the South Bohemian D3 from Kaplice nádraží to Nažidla, two more sections of the Karlovy Vary D6 or three sections of the Chomutov D7.
"If everything goes as planned, we could start construction of six sections of the D35 motorway in the length of 35.7 kilometres. This parallel link between Bohemia and Moravia will become the Czech motorway that has progressed most. The continuation of the construction of the 12.6-km Prague Ring Road between Běchovice and D1 is also highly anticipated," says Radek Mátl, Director General of the Road and Motorway Directorate.

For category I roads, the construction of 47 km of them can start. Specifically, these are two sections of the I/20 road near České Budějovice, the bypass of Náchod, Plas, Sezemice or the eastern bypass of Bruntál. All information about the construction sites is available in the Interactive Map of the Road and Motorway Directorate.

Winter maintenance begins, a ban on overtaking comes for trucks on the D1

The winter maintenance season on motorways and category I roads started at the beginning of November. "During this winter, 822 employees of ŘSD will take care of the roads within 21 motorway administration and maintenance centres. A total of 672 drivers and 150 controllers are assigned to the shifts. Other capacities, especially for the maintenance of category I roads, are with the contractors for the winter and are on standby," Mátl points out.

ŘSD has a total of 213 salt spreader trucks at its disposal. There are also 62 multi-purpose vehicles with various technical equipment – for example massive snow blowers capable of handling even the biggest snowdrifts will come into play during a big snowfall. There are more than 55,000 tonnes of salt and brine in the storage rooms of the maintenance centres. 52 loaders will be used to load salt into the spreaders.

More sections on the D1 where overtaking by trucks with more than 3.5 tonnes will be prohibited, except for sections with climbing lanes The ban will be extended in two phases: first in mid-November the ban on overtaking for trucks will be in force between km 90 Humpolec and km 112 Jihlava and the exit at km 146 Velké Meziříčí-východ and km 182 Kývalka.

And at the beginning 2024 this ban will be extended to section 21 km Mirošovice – 90 km Humpolec and 112 km Jihlava – 141 km Velké Meziříčí-západ, again with the exception of existing climbing lanes where overtaking will be permitted.

The sections were selected by the Traffic Police Service Departments of the regional directorates who had to review the existing sites and sections of motorways with ban signs and propose possible additional sections after evaluating the current traffic safety situation and the timing. The police presented the results at the Government Council for BESIP. The Road Administration Department of the Ministry of Transport then specified the locations where the prohibition signs will be installed.

Currently, there is a ban on overtaking for trucks on 20 sections of the D1, D5, D8, D11 motorways (132 km in total). With the exception of tunnel and previously implemented sections, the measures apply from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., and on the Brno section of the D1 motorway from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.