No work on the Prague ring road has begun in years because of a range of planning inefficiencies and politics that are all baked into the system of urban planning. So while state has committed to speeding up the process of buying land needed to extend the D0 ring road from D1 to the D11 motorway is certainly positive, cynics will be waiting for other roadblocks to appears. Still, the Ministry of Transport has labelled the 12 kilometer stretch as the one whose completion is most critical, claiming it would relieve the city of a huge volume of transit and suburban traffic. In particular, the eastern portion of the Jížní spojka express road suffers constantly from nearly constant congestion. The route received preliminary planning approval, which led inevitably to the filing of numerous objections. The Ministry has reportedly taken steps to accelerate the process of buying land by 10 months, accepting the planning risk that comes with the decision.
In other planning news, the City of Prague has entered what it’s describing as the final phase of negotiations over the redevelopment of the cargo train station in Prague 3. Central Group, Penta Real Estate and Sekyra Group all have projects in the zone. The original idea was to knock down the functionalist cargo station owned by Český drahy was itself shot down. Prague 3 officials claim that another round of public discussions and negotiations between state administration bodies will be held in the coming months, but that the change to the city’s master plan could be completed by the end of 2021. The new plan for the zone should allow for the development of a new neighborhood for around 15,000 residents. The process of arriving at a new plan for the old cargo station has been underway since 2008.
