D1 highway to undergo massive reconstruction in coming decade
This Tuesday marks the 40th anniversary of the opening of the first section of the Czech Republic's busiest highway, the D1. However, the road - which sees scores of fatal accidents every year - is in a poor state of repair and will have to undergo massive reconstruction over the coming decade. As the D1 is the country's main East-West motorway, diverting traffic in that period will cause huge logistical headaches, and serious safety risks. I discussed the problems that lie ahead with road safety expert Robert Šťastný.
“The D1 highway is the oldest highway in the Czech Republic and the most important one, because it ensures the West-East connection, not only between Prague and Brno, Bohemia and Moravia, but also from Eastern Europe to Western Europe and also from the south to the west of the continent. As such the road is a vital international transport link.
“And of course, because of its age, it is a 40-year-old highway, the quality of its surface is not so good and it needs to be repaired and reconstructed.”
Maybe you could describe the extent of the repairs and the reconstruction necessary to make this a safe, state-of-the art highway again?
“The main problem is that the material of the highway is very old and no one knows which problems can be solved in the near future. For example, this summer, some blocks came loose and created big troubles for cars and safety. So the plan is to totally reconstruct this highway, of course in maybe ten years, so it will be a very big reconstruction.”
“Everybody is afraid, because, as I said, there is only one East-West by highway, we don’t have a substitute highway in this direction. Any reconstruction work on this highway will cause problems – mainly congestions but it also has effects on safety. So we will see how this will be managed and how long the reconstruction will take and how many trafficlanes will be ensured in both directions.
“It is interesting that in the morning, you need a good connection from Brno to Prague, and in the afternoon, you need a good connection from Prague to Brno, so we will see if management will be able to change the number of lanes according to the time of day, and also it will be a very demanding job for the traffic police, to ensure discipline and good behavior, because discipline will be very important.”
The D1 is notorious for reckless drivers. Will this far-reaching reconstruction improve road safety?
I would expect so, because with the reconstruction, you have the chance to create better infrastructure, for example data cables and special monitoring devices, so it is a big challenge to do this and I think these devices would help with the safety on the highway not only during normal use, but especially during the reconstruction time, so I hope that it will be done.”
