Highways in the Czech Republic

The road sign informing the motorists they are travelling on a dálnice

The highways in the Czech Republic are no longer divided into motorways and expressways as the category of expressways (rychlostní silnice) was abolished on 31 December 2015. Most of expressways were classified as fully-fledged motorways, while some sections of the former expressways were suspended to common dual carriageway roads with a traffic sign of a road for motorcars (silnice pro motorová vozidla) whose speed limit is of up to 110 km/h, as they do not comply with the standards of expressway.

The motorways are managed by the state-owned Road and Motorway Directorate of the Czech Republic – ŘSD, established in 1997. The first modern highways in the Czech Republic was the motorway from Prague to the Slovak border through Brno whose construction was started on May 2, 1939 (plans approved on 4 November 1938 from Prague to Transcarpathian Ruthenia through Slovakia, after the loss of those territories only to Slovakian borders).

ŘSD currently manages and maintains 1.213 km of motorways (dálnice). The present-day national motorway network is due to be of about 2.000 km before 2030. For motorcars, motorways in the Czech Republic are subject to a fee in the form of a wind-screen label, like in some other countries of Central Europe.

Motorways

Example motorway road sign in the Czech Republic

The motorways in the Czech Republic, Czech: dálnice (abbr. D), are defined as two-lane motorways in each direction, with emergency lane. The speed limit is 130 km/h or 80 mph. Their road signs are white on red. As of 1 January 2016, the Czech motorway network comprises of 18 motoroways. Nowadays, 17 of them are at least partially operational, but only 4 (D2, D5, D10 and D46) have been completed, another one (D8) is near completion.

Number of motorway	Name of motorway	Motorway route	Operational (km)	In construction (km)	Total length (km)
	D0	Pražský okruh (Prague Ring)	41		83
	D1	Praha – Jihlava – Brno – Vyškov – Hulín – Přerov – Lipník nad Bečvou – Bělotín – Ostrava – Bohumín – Poland (motorway )	352	14	376
	D2	Brno – Břeclav – Slovakia (motorway )	61		61
	D3	Praha – Tábor – České Budějovice – Dolní Dvořiště – Austria (expressway )	42	16	172
	D4	Praha – Příbram – Třebkov	38	5	86
	D5	Praha – Beroun – Rokycany – Plzeň – Rozvadov – Germany (motorway )	151		151
	D6	Praha – Karlovy Vary – Sokolov – Cheb – Pomezí nad Ohří – Germany (motorway A 70)	76		167
	D7	Praha – Louny – Chomutov	35		82
	D8	Praha – Lovosice – Ústí nad Labem – Krásný Les – Germany (motorway )	82	13	94
	D10	Praha – Mladá Boleslav – Turnov	71		71
	D11	Praha – Poděbrady – Hradec Králové – Jaroměř – Trutnov – Královec – Poland (expressway )	87	4	154
	D35	Hradec Králové – Svitavy – Mohelnice – Olomouc – Lipník nad Bečvou	63		174
	D46	Vyškov – Prostějov – Olomouc	38		38
	D48	Bělotín – Nový Jičín – Frýdek-Místek – Český Těšín	31		75
	D49	Hulín – Zlín – Vizovice – Střelná – Slovakia (expressway )	0		69
	D52	Brno – Pohořelice – Mikulov – Austria (motorway )	17		53
	D55	Olomouc – Přerov – Hulín – Otrokovice – Hodonín – Břeclav	16		101
	D56	Ostrava – Frýdek-Místek	12		13
	Totally		1213	52	2020

Originally, a motorway D47 was planned from Brno to Ostrava and contruction in the section Lipník nad Bečvou - Ostrava under this number even started, but in the end the ŘSD in 2006 decided that the D47 should be classified as an extension of the D1 motorway.

Roads for motorcars

The road sign informing the motorists they are travelling on a silnice pro motorová vozidla

As of 2016, the former expressways that do not comply with motorway standards, have been classified as roads for motorcars (silnice pro motorová vozidla). Those common roads are not subject to a fee and their high speed limit is of 110 km/h. The signs on roads for motorcars have, like on other common roads, a white text on a blue backround (unlike on motorways, where the background is green).

See also

• Transport in the Czech Republic

External links

• ŘSD official web site