Palačov link opens: Czech Wallachia gets a road to the D48 motorway

Czechia has opened the Palačov link, a new 4.2-kilometre section of the I/35 road. Drivers coming off the D48 motorway can now use the new two-level Palačov interchange to reach the road leading to Lešná near Valašské Meziříčí, which connects Wallachia to the motorway network. The interchange slip roads add up to more than four kilometres.

According to Radek Mátl, director general of the Road and Motorway Directorate, the link matters to three regions at once: Olomouc, Moravian-Silesian and, above all, Zlín.

What changes for drivers

The new four-lane, motorway-type road will take trucks off the old route through Hustopeče nad Bečvou, Milotice nad Bečvou, Teplice nad Bečvou and Hranice in the Olomouc Region. Mátl added that the road will also help residents of the Moravian-Silesian Region: on the way from Nový Jičín to Valašské Meziříčí, drivers will be able to bypass the I/57 road through Hodslavice, which was not designed for today’s traffic and runs through the whole of Nový Jičín.

The project includes sixteen new bridges and about a kilometre of noise barriers. Because of the Choryňské mokřiny nature reserve, barriers have been installed along the road to stop birds from colliding with vehicles.

Why the opening was delayed

Construction took more than three years and, owing to early complications, ran half a year behind schedule: under the original plan, drivers were to be using the new road as early as this spring. According to Mátl, the main problem was relocating utility networks. They had been planned to be laid on the D48 by open trenching, but that proved impossible, so trenchless boring had to be used, which caused the delay.

In addition, builders completed an almost four-kilometre section of the new D48 motorway between Palačov and Dub in the Nový Jičín district, created by rebuilding the I/48 road. Traffic has been running on the first half since April this year, and drivers started using the second half when the link opened.

What comes next

The Valašské Meziříčí bypass will connect to the link in the future. The zoning decision has already been issued, and the Directorate expects to apply for a building permit next year and begin buying land.

Road crews have already started rebuilding the I/48 road near Nový Jičín: traffic there has been shifted to two lanes and the central cable barriers are being removed. About four kilometres of the new four-lane D48 with a central reservation should be ready at the turn of 2028 and 2029. The cost is just under 871 million crowns.

The connection between the Czech and Polish motorway networks near Český Těšín will be completed by rebuilding the bridge over Šenov near Nový Jičín. Work to widen it will begin no sooner than four years from now.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz