D35 Motorway Through Bohemian Paradise Won't Start Before 2033 — And That's the Optimistic Forecast

Construction of the D35 expressway through the picturesque Bohemian Paradise (Český ráj) region won't begin before 2033 — and even that timeline already looks overly optimistic. That's according to Radek Mátl, director general of the Road and Motorway Directorate (ŘSD), speaking ahead of talks with representatives of the Liberec Region and municipalities affected by the project.

According to him, preparation of the project has essentially started from scratch — the directorate must once again carry out an environmental impact assessment in this ecologically valuable area, a process that will take at least 2.5 years. Construction was originally slated to begin in 2029, then ŘSD documents pushed the date to 2033, but Mátl warns the reality could turn out even bleaker.

"I think this is a very tentative and quite optimistic — if not almost impossible — timeline as things stand. We're unlikely to even settle on a route before 2029. Ahead of us lies 2.5 years of a fresh environmental impact assessment, choosing a variant, then design work and land acquisition. So 2033 is a very optimistic date — I think it'll end up being later than that," the director explained.

A Quarter-Century of Route Disputes

The question of the route and design of the I/35 road, meant to divert transit traffic away from towns and villages and improve the connection between the Liberec and Hradec Králové regions, has been debated for 25 years now. The so-called northern route, spanning 35 kilometers and including an access road to Semily, is written into the territorial plans of both regions. Current estimates put the cost of construction at around 30 billion crowns.

The project lost its environmental clearance after then-Environment Minister Petr Hladík (KDU-ČSL), on his last working day in office last December, revoked a previously issued positive assessment.

Plans called for building the section from Ohrazenice near Turnov to Úlibice near Jičín. The stretch from Ohrazenice to Žernov was to be four lanes, while the section toward Jičín would have two lanes with an alternating third lane. However, according to Mátl, the Hradec Králové Region is now insisting on four lanes along the entire stretch. As a result, a full four-lane motorway option will also be considered, including tunnels demanded by the town of Turnov. "We're ready to include tunnels and, even now, to examine at least a basic version of a major tunnel solution under the Jizera River," Mátl said.

Opponents Push for a Southern Route

Besides the invited mayors and representatives of the Liberec Region, opponents of the project who want the northern route scrapped altogether also showed up at the meeting held at the Střelnice cultural center in Turnov. They favor a so-called southern variant which, according to Jan Piňos of the SOS Český ráj coalition of initiatives, would be gentler on both nature and people, as well as cheaper. "There is no legitimate public interest that would justify routing the road through the heart of Bohemian Paradise. The overwhelmingly dominant interest here is nature conservation," he said.

The southern route would bypass the valuable protected landscape area to the south of Jičín, following roads I/16 and II/268 through Sobotka and Mnichovo Hradiště, steering clear of the core of the Český ráj protected landscape area. However, this would lengthen the journey from Jičín to Liberec and increase the load on the D10 highway. It also wouldn't solve the need for an access road to Semily.

According to Mátl, the southern route isn't included in the municipalities' territorial plans, and the Central Bohemian Region doesn't support this option either. "At this point, such a change simply isn't possible," he noted. If preparation of the southern variant were to begin anyway, construction would have to be postponed by as much as another 20 years.

Source: seznamzpravy.cz