The last D1 section between Říkovice and Přerov is now under construction. When completed, the D1 wi20/12/2022|Press releasesŘSD started the construction of the D1 motorway between Říkovice and Přerov. This is the last missing section of the D1 motorway. Its opening will complete our oldest, longest and most important motorway. "Our longest and most famous motorway is now one step closer to completion. The Říkovice – Přerov section will reach a length of 377 km and the new section will significantly help get traffic out of the town of Přerov. Traffic on D46 will also calm down after the last section of D1 has been opened, because most vehicles will get from Brno to Ostrava on this last part of D1," says transport minister Martin Kupka about the construction that started today. "The 10-km motorway section, the construction of which started today, can be described without exaggeration as one of the most important infrastructure projects in the Czech Republic. The opening of the last section of the D1 will firstly solve the complicated traffic situation in Přerov where all transit traffic currently passes through the town centre. And secondly, the traffic on the D46 motorway, which is used as the main route between Brno and Ostrava because of the still unfinished D1, will be significantly reduced. Last but not least, the completion of the D1 motorway is of course also symbolic, because it is our most important transport artery," said Radek Mátl, director general of ŘSD, upon the start of construction. The motorway will also include three grade-separated intersections, noise barriers for a total length of four kilometres and fourteen bridges. The most demanding structure of the entire project will be a 940-metre long bridge that takes, among other things, the motorway over the Bečva River, the Precheza chemical plant and the four-track railway line Olomouc – Přerov. The project will be proposed for co-financing from the Cohesion Fund. From the history of the D1 motorway The construction of the D1 motorway was approved permitted on 4 November 1938. At that time, a motorway link between Prague and Podkarpatska Rus was envisaged. Construction of the motorway began on 2 May 1939, but work was interrupted by World War II. Although construction was resumed to a limited extent after the war, it was finally stopped in 1950. In 1963, the backbone network of Czech motorways was approved, which included the construction of D1. Compared with the original plans from 1939, the route and parameters have been partially changed, which is why we can still find abandoned and unused bridges from the 1930s and 1940s in the vicinity of the Švihov (Želivka) reservoir. The construction of the D1 motorway, as we know it today, began on 8 September 1967 and on 12 July 1971 the first ever motorway section in the Czech Republic was opened between Prague and Mirošovice. The continuous motorway between Prague and Brno was completed on 8 November 1980, when the last section of the motorway near Humpolec was opened. In 1988 and 1992 two sections were put into operation from Holubice u Brna up to Vyškov. Other sections were opened much later: the first one in 2005 behind Vyškov and the first section in northern Moravia in 2007. The D1 was gradually being extended up to Říkovice and from Lipník nad Bečvou up to Ostrava. The motorway was hit the border with Poland in 2012. So the last piece of the D1 that has been opened most recently in 2019 is the section between Lipník and Přerov. According to the original (federal) plans, the D1 motorway was supposed to continue to Slovakia and end on the Czech territory at the Starý Hrozenkov border crossing. The eastern part of today's D1 used to be called D47. In 2006 it was decided that the entire D1 motorway route connecting the three largest cities of the Czech Republic, i.e. Prague, Brno and Ostrava, would be bear the name “D1”. The D1 will now have a length of 377 km between Prague and the Polish A1 motorway. The D1 motorway between Prague and Brno has always been the busiest motorway in the country. That is why in 1996-1999 the first 21 km between Prague and Mirošovice were extended from four lanes to six. In the future, this section should be further relieved by the D3 motorway going from Prague to the south. A similar widening of the D1 is currently planned in the area of Brno between kilometres 182-210. What will also help ease traffic on the D1 should be the completion of the D35 motorway in the section Hradec Králové – Mohelnice. Together with the D11 motorway, the D35 will be the alternative "northern route" connecting Bohemia and Moravia. For this reason, the D1 motorway was built in a six-lane layout from Lipník nad Bečvou, where the D35 motorway connects to it, to Bělotín where the D48 motorway branches off it. D1 Říkovice – Přerov Main route: length: 10.1 km categories: D 26.5/120 number of civil structures: 228 contractor: Strabag, Doprastav, IDS price of the construction according to the contract: CZK 6.922 billion excluding VAT expected opening: 2025 rendering: D1 Říkovice – Přerov