Prague will no longer consider alternative routes for the completion of Prague’s ring road, according to the mayor’s working group set up to decide on the question. “I was open to evaluating alternative routes for the ring road but it’s absolutely unrealistic,” said deputy mayor Petr Hlaváček, who led the group. “Another study, which would have cost hundreds of thousands of crowns, makes no sense. We need to stick to the facts.” The working group was looking at whether to look at other routes that led further to the north of the city, deeper into the territory of Central Bohemia. This route, however, would have a far greater impact on inhabited territories or on land where residential construction is planned.
The current route has been in the planning process since 1995, with city planners trying to adapt to the concerns and complaints of people living along or near it. Beginning an entirely new route could easily mean another quarter century spent on the same process.
“You can’t avoid reality. The ring road will always leave some people more satisfied than others. There’s not ideal variant. Either there will be a so-called ‘dumb’ ring road that does the utmost for the people and environment it impacts, or there won’t be any at all,” said the deputy mayor in charge of transport, Petr Hlaváček.
