Recession curbs road construction

Czech Transport Minister Gustav Slámečka told Parliament’s budget committee on Thursday that, due to cost-cutting measures introduced across the board, road construction in the Czech Republic would have to be severely curbed. This includes halting work on a new stretch of the D1 motorway to Ostrava and the motorway’s planned extension to Vienna. Altogether work will stop on 300 roads and motorways across the country in the coming months and up to 200,000 construction workers could lose their jobs. Conservation work alone is expected to cost five billion crowns.