Completion of the D11 motorway can go ahead after 16 years. Over all those years, the final construction was hindered by a seemingly endless lawsuit between the state and the owners of the land, who faced expropriation until they reached an agreement with the government on Monday. Christian Falvey reports.
Foto: ČTK
The D11 motorway connecting Prague and the eastern Bohemian city of Hradec Králové has been on paper since 1938. Construction did not begin until 1978, however, and after that it continued at a snail’s pace, but even today the road never reaches Hradec Králové. The asphalt ends at the land of two sisters, Ludmila Havránková and Jaroslava Štrosová, who have been battling the expropriation of their land since 1994. On Monday though that issue came to a similarly abrupt end, with the two parties reaching an agreement that David Štros, the lawyer for and son of Jaroslava Štrosová, put down to a new atmosphere amongst the negotiators.
Ludmila Havránková, foto: www.ct24.cz
“The state, or rather the contract agreed on with the state, guarantees my client the exchange of a slightly smaller plot of land for her land and financial compensation of 40,000 crowns for the difference. The negotiations have been held in a different atmosphere, and the result announced today was the result of a lot of hard work.”
This arrangement applies to Ms Štrosová; her sister was reportedly content with an offer of roughly a million dollars and a similar plot of land elsewhere. But still the deal seemed an radical change of heart amid years of complaints put forward by the families, who said that the state had not followed standard procedures, that they were forced to make decisions in very short timeframes, et cetera. Mr Štros, for his part offered little insight, but said he wanted bygones to be bygones.
Foto: www.ct24.cz
“Speaking from the odd position of a lawyer who is also representing his mother, I can say that the new atmosphere changed the situation 100%. [Regarding our complaints about the behaviour of the state in this case], we want to look towards the future. Let’s be glad for the agreement that was reached with the government. I’m looking forward to the final signing of the contract and there is no need to keep rehashing the slight insults and injuries of the past.”
The threat of expropriation created an interesting situation in a country where there is little sympathy for nationalisation of any kind after 40 years of communism. Transport Minister Gustav Slamečka on Monday told Czech Radio that the long process could also be a learning experience for the future.
Gustav Slamečka
“There are also lessons to be learned from this. I myself am very interested how things will go. We have been able to push through an amendment to the law on the construction of traffic infrastructure, and we’ll see what will happen. That amendment will of course affect the acquisition of other plots of land, and if the provisions that it puts on the table prove to be ineffective, then we really are going to have to think of a way to set up these laws and these procedures so that similar situations no longer arise.”
Similar situations indeed already exist; there are currently four other locations around Bohemia where the state is at odds with local landowners or ecological activists over the completion of highway infrastructure.
