Motorway preparation will be faster, the MPs passed a bill to accelerate infrastructure projects

"By passing this bill, we take the path of accelerating the construction of transportation network without unnecessary speculations regarding the acquisition price and all the possible delays, as we know them. According to this amendment, the land for strategic projects is going to be either acquired or expropriated anyway. And the bill guarantees that nobody will be cheated, not even a bit," says the transport minister Karel Havlíček.

The possibility of obtaining the planning permit and building permit for a piece of transportation infrastructure in the same proceedings based on a design that is less detailed and requires only one review is the major improvement and tool for acceleration. The amendment also introduces the so-called Uniform Binding Statement for projects where the EIA was performed. In these instances, a single binding statement will be issued to replace all administration deeds issued under the nature and landscape protection act, which can – when compared with the current situation – save up to one year in preparation. The bill also introduces a fixed period for binding statements since application. This period is 30 days and/or 60 days in highly sophisticated cases. So-called "consent fictions" are foreseen if these periods are not met.
The Polish construction method
The principles of the so-called Polish construction method were added to the draft bill. They will allow the investor to obtain the ownership title also to property not acquired through an agreement with the owner prior to the commencement of the building proceedings or combined planning and building proceedings. "The Polish model make it possible for builders to apply for the building permit or joint planning and building permit including the expropriation request for the remaining properties. The building department will then decide about the expropriation in a separate decision as part of the building permit proceedings and/or combined planning and building permit proceedings. It is possible to obtain the building permit without proven ownership titles to certain properties already today, but construction can start only on the land owned by the investor. This so-called Polish model can help accelerate the expropriation of many last problematic properties needed for a specific construction project by merging them into single proceedings," says the initiators of the proposal and chairman of the transportation sub-committee Martin Kolovratník.

The Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Industry and Trade and Ministry for Regional Development also propose in their expropriation draft bill that specific periods be defined for the granting of the expropriation decision regarding specific land which the investor needs for its construction. The authorities will have 60 days since the start of the expropriation proceedings for calling up a meeting with the land owners affected, followed by a 30-day period for issuing the expropriation decision.

"The current act does not set any period that would be sufficient. And it does not make enough pressure on the expropriation authority to act without undue delays. But now, with the fixed period, the authority shall be positively motivated to issue the decisions within periods that are both reasonable and realistic," says the ministry in its rationale. While the administration code foresees maximum 60 days since the start of the proceedings, this period cannot be objectively met in the expropriation proceedings, which is why longer and more realistic periods are now proposed.

The Ministry for Regional Development and Ministry of Industry and Trade further propose an extension to the interim decision institute also to water and power infrastructure.

The bill also governs in detail the cancellation of railway crossings that are no longer needed and sets specific criteria when these crossings can be removed. This will make railway modernisation and use more efficient and reduce accidents at railway crossings. 

In the transportation sector, 253.8 km of new motorways and category I roads are currently under construction, of which motorways on a green field make 127.7 km, the D1 modernisation 71.0 km and category I roads 55.1 km. Motorways where construction is most advanced are the D2 modernisation and construction of the D35 Pardubice, D11 Hradec Králové and D3 South Bohemian motorways.

You can find more details on the different projects on our interactive map.