The Ring Road's Missing Link Slips to the Second Half of 2028 — and Gets Dearer

The 12.5-kilometre section of the Prague Ring Road between Běchovice and the D1 will now open in the second half of 2028. The Czech road directorate ŘSD had originally counted on finishing at the end of 2027. The delay of several months is down to unexpected geological conditions, and the job — contracted at almost CZK 9.8 billion excluding VAT — will also cost several hundred million more, Zdopravy.cz reported on 28 August.

That is the news in a progress report, and it is worth separating from the rest, because a date that moves on the most conspicuously missing piece of the Czech motorway network moves a great deal else with it.

What the section carries

Completing the missing stretch between Běchovice and Modletice will connect the D1 and the D11. ŘSD's case for it is relief inside Prague: the link is expected to take hundreds of thousands of transiting lorries and cars off the city's own roads, above all off the Jižní spojka and the eastern parts of the city ring.

The section itself will have five bridges, two tunnels, nine overpasses, four large grade-separated junctions and three footbridges for pedestrians and cyclists.

Where the work has got to

At the bridge over the Říčanský potok near Kolovraty, piers and abutments are being concreted and further foundations excavated. At the bridge over the Pitkovický potok near Kuří, a massive structure for the future deck is being prepared alongside the foundations. Work has also advanced on the smaller bridges crossing roads.

At the bridge over the Říčanský potok near Kolovraty the piers and abutments are being concreted. We are also excavating its further foundations.

— Petra Drkulová, ŘSD spokesperson

A large grade-separated junction is going up at Dubeč, where construction pits for the future piers are being dug and foundations reinforced.

At the site of the future junction near Říčany we are building bridge abutments, assembling steel girders and mostly concreting.

— Petra Drkulová, ŘSD spokesperson

At the future Na Vysoké tunnel, contractors are consolidating and concreting foundations and retaining walls, and the shape of the tubes is beginning to emerge. At Dubeč the soil for the tunnel is still being excavated and its walls secured with special anchors. Noise embankments are being built on both sides of the future ring road along the Běchovice–D1 stretch.

Two years of tunnel, and a moving target

The construction narrative and the schedule pull in different directions here, which is why the report is worth reading twice. Visually the section is at its most convincing stage — tubes emerging, girders going in, embankments rising. Contractually it has just given back the better part of a year.

Geology is the stated cause, and on a section with two tunnels and four interchanges that is a plausible one. It is also the kind of cause that does not resolve into a single revised date so much as into a new range: the second half of 2028 is a window, and the added cost is quoted in hundreds of millions rather than a figure. Both are worth holding lightly until ŘSD narrows them.