"I expect a majority of drivers will start using the highway soon. After that, heavy trucks should soon be gone from Plzeň's roads," said Vlastimil Kroupa, head of Plzeň City Hall's traffic division, Oct. 9.

The D5 officially opened Oct. 6, after more than 20 years under construction. It runs 151 kilometers (94 miles) southwest from Prague to the German border crossing at Rozvadov-Waidhaus, where it joins the German A6 highway, and then eventually the A93 that runs to Munich.

The last part of the highway to be completed was a 3.5-kilometer ring road and new tunnel that circumvents Plzeň.

Officials heralded the highway's opening as the first real meeting of Central and East European highway networks with the already well-established European Union highway grid.

Under ideal conditions of good weather and light traffic, drivers can make the 400-kilometer trip from Prague to Munich in less than three hours, officials say.

But, soon after the highway's opening, it was apparent that, for all its promise, the D5 isn't the quick fix officials were counting on.

Journalists independently tested the claims of a speedier trip to Munich and found that traffic congestion and bottlenecks along the D5 lengthened the journey to some five hours.

It seems that truckers took notice of the heavy delays and still prefer to use the local roads.

"To be honest, the D5 is not going to help truckers reach their destination faster," said Antonín Hrazdíra, vice president of the ČESMAD Bohemia transporters' union. "With trucks, we see numerous delays. It's too early to say to what extent the highway will improve the traffic situation in the region."

Construction of the D5 began in 1982 but has been bogged down for decades with permit problems and, more recently, the protests of environmentalists, especially over the Plzeň detour.

The country plans to finish another 72 kilometers of new highways throughout the country this year, at a cost of 36 billion Kč ($1.6 billion).