D8 Motorway (Czech Republic)

D8 motorway () is a motorway in the Central and North Bohemian regions of the Czech Republic. It connects Prague through Ústí nad Labem with the German border at Petrovice and the Bundesautobahn 17 at Bad Gottleuba, leading to Dresden. It forms part of the major European route E55 and the Pan-European Corridor IV.

History

The motorway basically follows the route of an ancient road called the ''Serbian Trail'', which connected Prague with Saxony and the ''Serbian Lusatia'', which crossed the Ore Mountains at the Nakléřovský Pass.

World War II

Prague - Dresden motorway first appeared on the plans in October 1938, just a few weeks after the Munich Agreement. In the Sudeto - German plans of 1938 - 1945, the present D8 was marked as the A72; in the Czech, and later, protectorate plans, as motorway corridor IV. However, construction did not start because priority was given to another motorway.

On 23 December 1938, the General Directorate of Highway Construction (DGHK) was established and the term motorway was officially introduced.

On 30 April 1942, a ban was issued on the construction of motorways throughout the Greater German Reich, which included the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, due to the transfer of labour to war production. Construction in this direction did not start again even after the end of the war. The plan to build the Prague-Dresden motorway as Corridor IV remained in Czechoslovak plans until December 1950.

Present day

The first sections of the highway running from the Prague Ring to the Lovosice junction were opened between 1990 and 2000; the northwestern segment leading from Ústí nad Labem to the German border was completed on 21 December 2006, including the longest tunnel in the Czech Republic, the long Panenská tunnel. Another long section from Ústí nad Labem to Řehlovice was opened in 1988 in the course of the construction of the R63 expressway.

Works on remaining long segment between Řehlovice and Lovosice were delayed for several years due to numerous protests and appeals by the Děti Země environmental movement against the route taken through the České Středohoří mountain range, a protected landscape area and nature reserve. From the beginning, the project has been also criticized by some geologists, and lately by the National Financial Audit Office for large cost overrun. In 2013, a major landslide buried part of the under-construction highway. Construction work nevertheless continued and the last part of highway was opened in December 2016 albeit with traffic restrictions between Lovosice and Řehlovice.

The restrictions caused by unstable geology; reduced traffic to one lane each on a section. A solution is to reinforce the section with grout which cost 220 million Kč (8.43 million €). The traffic restrictions between Lovosice and Řehlovice were removed on 20 September 2017 following the stabilization of the roadway.

Route description

Images

File:D8 CZ lávka Kočičí oči.jpg, Motorway D8, foot bridge Kočičí oči (Cat Eyes).
File:Emergency stopping lane on D8 near Petrovice, Czech Republic-6316.jpg, Emergency stopping lane on D8 near Petrovice.
File:Kapelle trmice-kostov - cz.jpg, Small chapel "Virgin Mary" (1820) in Trmice-Koštov under D8 motorway.
File:D8 CZ, Tunel Panenská.jpg, Panenská tunnel ().
File:Krásný Les, dálnice D8, k Panenské (01).jpg, Motorway D8, Krásný Les

References

Content in this edit is translated from the existing Czech Wikipedia article at :cs:Dálnice D8; see its history for attribution.

External links

Information on dalnice-silnice.cz

Information on motorway.cz

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