Next year, drivers will have 53 km of new highways opened to them

Prague - Next year, drivers will have 53 kilometers of new motorways and expressways opened, with the longest sections being put into operation on the D1 motorway between Olomouc and Ostrava. This year, 47 kilometers have been added or will still be added. This follows from the materials of the Road and Motorway Directorate. On the other hand, the budget for the construction and maintenance of motorways for next year is currently lower than this year.
The construction of motorways is currently experiencing unprecedented growth in the Czech Republic. "A total of 214 kilometers of motorways are under construction, which has no historical precedent," stated the representative of the Road and Motorway Directorate, Jan Hoření. Besides the D1 towards Poland, the construction is mainly focused on the motorway bypass around Prague, the Karlovy Vary expressway R6, or the South Bohemian D3 motorway from Prague to České Budějovice.
In this year's plan for "ribbon-cutting" on the motorways, there remains almost a fifteen-kilometer section of the D1 from Lipník nad Bečvou to Bělotín, a two-kilometer motorway connection R48 in the same area, and just before Christmas, ten kilometers from Prague to Pavlov on the Karlovy Vary road R6 will be opened. Next year, the first new motorway sections will be opened in September on R6 and Chomutov R7.
The question remains regarding the financing of the construction of additional kilometers next year and further in the future. For now, the draft budget of the State Fund for Transport Infrastructure allocates 23 billion crowns for motorways and expressways, which is 11 billion less than this year’s budget. Moreover, during the year, that budget was increased to almost 40 billion crowns, of which 17 billion has so far been utilized.
As Jiří Novák, the deputy director of the fund, told CTK, the budget for next year is likely to increase throughout the year. Funds can be transferred from year to year without limitations. According to the Deputy Minister of Transport Jiří Hodač, it is already certain that approximately ten billion crowns will be transferred into next year.
The construction of motorways and expressways is largely financed by European Union funds. The SFDI budget anticipates 36 billion CZK from the EU next year, which is about four billion more than this year. Conversely, the Czech state will significantly reduce its contribution to the fund from this year’s 45 billion to less than 38 billion CZK. This may jeopardize some projects, such as the maintenance of bridges.
The Czech Republic now has over 1000 kilometers of motorways and expressways, which is about half of the planned basic motorway network. According to estimates from the Road and Motorway Directorate, it could be completed around the year 2020.

Sections to be opened in 2009:

Motorways and expressways	Section	Length in km	Opening date
D1	Mořice - Kojetín (2nd phase)	6.6	November 2009
D1	Bělotín - Hladké Životice	18.1	November 2009
D1	Hladké Životice - Bílovec	11.7	November 2009
R6	Tisová - Kamenný Dvůr	7.5	September 2009
R7	MUK Vysočany	0.5	September 2009
R7	Bítozeves - Vysočany	5.8	September 2009
R35	Sedlice - Opatovice	3.0	November 2009
TOTAL		53.2

How the motorway network has expanded (D+R):

Year	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
New km	7.2	22.5	4.1	28.1	19.5	16.7	79.1	46.1	46.9	53.2
Total km	791	814	818	846	865	882	961	1007	1054	1157