A variant behind the overloaded D1? The shorter connection between Prague and Ostrava is growing at a record level

Road workers want to build almost a third of the total length of the D35 highway this year, the work will include nine sections. On Monday, the Directorate of Roads and Highways officially started work on the seven-kilometer section between Ostrov and Vysoký Mýt for 3.2 billion crowns, including the 570-meter-long Homole tunnel.

In the future, the D35 motorway will shorten the journey between Prague and Ostrava by up to an hour. It should be finished in 2029 according to the plans of the road workers.

Drivers from the north of Moravia now drive to the capital via Brno on the often congested D1 highway. The situation there is complicated by works to expand one lane in each direction. The journey from Ostrava to Prague often takes more than four hours by car, much longer by truck.

At the same time, the first sections on the “35” began more than 40 years ago, but in the following decades, other constructions had priority.

Now the builders are working on the territory of three regions and have built over 46 kilometers. “By the end of this year, we plan to start the implementation of the sections Sadová-Plotiště (7.5 km) and Litomyšl-Janov (10.4 km). By the end of this year, a total of 64 km of the D35 should be under construction,” boasted the director of the ŘSD Radek Mátl.

Construction companies will work on six bridges and four bird barriers on the started section near Vysoké Mýt in the Pardubice region. The Vysoké Mýto connection is designed as a part of the Vysoké Mýto – Džbánov highway section, which road workers have been building since last year.

The builders will partly excavate and partly excavate the Homole tunnel. They will use the new Austrian tunneling method for its excavation. “Injecting a hill so that they can dig in it will not be easy at all,” added Mátl.

The variant to D1 now has government priority. “It will relieve the congested D1 and local roads. By the end of this year, it will become the largest highway construction site in Central Europe, as work will also be carried out on 64 kilometers of this key transport route,” said Transport Minister Martin Kupka (ODS).

According to him, the construction of 170 kilometers of highways and roads will begin in the Czech Republic this year, and D35 is at the top of the list.

The highway is to measure 210 kilometers in the future. It will connect Olomouc, Hradec Králové and Liberec, and now it is almost 93 kilometers long. However, these are discontinuous sections, interrupted by the I/35 expressway. “The intensity of traffic in Eastern Bohemia is really high, the cities are overloaded with transit traffic. The fact that the highway has not yet been completed mainly affects the people in the towns and villages near the I/35 road,” added Mátl.

The ministry wants to let a private person on this highway as well. This week began with the selection of a private company that will deliver a total of 35 kilometers of D35 in the form of a PPP project. It concerns the sections between Opatovce in the Svitavska region and Mohelnica in the Šumperska region and the maintenance of the section from Opatovce to Litomyšl.

Interested investors will meet with representatives of the ministry in mid-June. “The separate department for the preparation of PPP projects, the transaction advisor, has the task of preparing the selection of the concessionaire as quickly as possible and under precisely set transparent conditions so that construction can begin in 2026,” said Kupka.

The D4 highway is already being built in the form of PPP. In such a case, the contracting authority concludes a contractual relationship with a private supplier. The so-called concessionaire tenders the contract, constructs the section and then provides maintenance. The contract usually lasts for 15 to 30 years, during which the contracting authority sends regular installments to the private company.