New section of Prague ring road opens

A new part of the Prague outer ring road opened for traffic Sept. 20, despite security concerns regarding one of its bridges.

Speaking on a Czech Television program Sept. 19, Deputy Transport Minister Radek Šmerda called the project "one big mess," adding that it lacked a clear concept and that to give his personal opinion would require the use of foul language.

Two security tests commissioned by the Transport Ministry, one provided by the Czech Technical University and one by the independent engineering and development consultancy firm Mott MacDonald, found that three joints of one of the outer ring road's bridges were faulty. While the former came to the conclusion that the faulty joints posed no significant danger, Mott MacDonald considers the defective joints a serious problem.

The Transport Ministry plans to get a third inspection of the bridge from an Austrian technical university, but has decided to give the opening the go-ahead. In addition, the project has drawn criticism from many sides since much of it is still mired in delays, leading some to ask whether it will have any effect on easing traffic in the city center.

The new 23-kilometer (14.3-mile) section, located in the southern part of the city, cost 22 billion Kč ($1.2 billion) and took four years to complete.

City officials say they hope the new highway will divert 50 percent of truck traffic away from the city center, which has been one of the main causes of traffic jams on cramped inner-city roads. The road is also meant to divert 30 percent of automobile traffic that passes through the city on the way to other locations. Daily, around 60,000 automobiles are expected to pass through the new section, which is one of the most expensive road projects in the history of the country and features state-of-the-art technology. Sensors will monitor traffic and through a system of signs direct motorists into different lanes. The section also includes 109 security cameras.

"We expect that this will facilitate the connection between east and west," said Monika Vápeníková, a spokeswoman for the Road and Motorway Directorate of the Czech Republic (ŘSD ČR). "Drivers entering the city from Germany via the D5 [highway], for example, will be able to quickly get to the D1 highway leading further east, to Ostrava, thanks to this new section."

Trucks weighing more than 12 tons will no longer be able to enter the southern connection (Jižní spojka), a part of the city's inner ring road that leads across the Barrandov Bridge.

Trucks are required to use the outer ring road, which connects to the D1 and D5, giving them access to the country's second and third largest cities - Brno and Ostrava, respectively - as well as Germany.

But critics say that rather than solving the city's traffic problems, opening just a portion of the outer ring road with much of the rest still in the planning stages will merely relocate traffic congestion to other parts of Prague.

"Cars and trucks that enter the city from the north and east on highways D11 and D8 will now have to travel 10 kilometers on the D1 highway to get to this new part of the outer ring road," said Martin Felix of Česmad Bohemia, a trucker advocacy group. "So instead of traveling 13 kilometers, they will now have to travel a total of 34 kilometers to make the same connection, which goes hand in hand with more pollution. And to get around this longer drive, many drivers will probably try to use roads in the suburbs of Prague, which are not built to withstand truck traffic."

Felix is not alone in his criticism, and others argue that despite opening about one-fourth of the ambitious outer ring road project, meant to span a total of 82.7 kilometers, much work remains before overall traffic flow is improved.

"The question of where the outer ring road should lead in the northern part of the city - where it is most necessary - has not yet been resolved and is delaying the entire project. So opening this small part of the ring road cannot really be seen as a success," said Martin Skalský, director of the NGO Arnika, which encourages greater public participation in environmental decision-making. "The most significant problem is that the City of Prague does not seem to have been able to devise an effective overall strategy to deal with the constant increase of traffic."

According to a 2009 estimate by the Transport Ministry, the rest of the outer ring road project will cost 71 billion Kč to complete. With numerous permits pending, according to Vápeníková, there are no reliable estimates of when the overall project will be finished.

Sarah Borufka can be reached at
sborufka@praguepost.com