D3 from Veselí to Č. Budějovice will probably be a pilot project of PPP

České Budějovice - The thirty-five-kilometer stretch of the D3 highway from Veselí nad Lužnicí to Úsilné near České Budějovice will likely be a pilot project funded through public-private partnership. This was stated to reporters today by Transport Minister Gustáv Slamečka. All previously planned highway projects under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model have so far ended in failure. According to Slamečka, the legislation regarding expropriation complicates the situation for investors during the crisis.
    “We have announced several times, and I confirm it again, that if a change in legislation regarding expropriation is not adopted, meaning that performance is separated from the possibility of construction, unfortunately we will have to stop the project again, because it is not possible to continue,” Slamečka stated. The amendment to the expropriation law is supposed to eliminate the suspensive effect of the court on the commencement of construction.
    The original project proposed by the government suggested construction from Veselí nad Lužnicí to the state border and maintenance of current sections on the border of the Central Bohemian and South Bohemian regions. “Today, based on how the financial market is developing and the preparation of these projects, we have come to the conclusion that we will have to break the project into smaller sections,” Slamečka noted. He now wants to present to the government the section from Veselí to Úsilné, which is the best prepared. Investors could start competing for the construction as early as this autumn.
    “The PPP project, as it was being prepared, had about 70 kilometers. Currently, what is to be sent to the government as a priority of the Ministry of Transport has 35 kilometers,” said Josef Pešl, director of the České Budějovice administration of the Road and Motorway Directorate. The construction of the section would require about 14 billion crowns.
    The next section could be the part around České Budějovice, which would create a bypass for the city. “From the perspective of České Budějovice, it seems more important to us to build the highway bypass for the city of České Budějovice as quickly as possible. This means the section from Úsilné to the Krasejovka intersection,” said Mayor Juraj Thoma. He added that, as a pilot project, a section must be chosen that is best prepared both in terms of ownership and design. According to him, the municipalities around the regional city have also found agreement on the route of the highway.
    The entire planned route of the D3 from Prague to České Budějovice and the connecting R3 road to the Austrian border measures approximately 171.4 kilometers. The estimated cost of its construction is 80 billion crowns. Once completed, the highway will become part of the European transport corridors, specifically the international route E55, which runs from Scandinavia through Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Italy to Greece.