This week’s edition of the Czech magazine Respekt comments on the resumption of construction work on the D8 motorway connecting Prague to Dresden. It reminds readers that construction got underway in mid-August on the D8 motorway to Dresden, two weeks after a complaint lodged by a local environmental group (they demanded an EIA be carried out) was rejected by the regional courts.
Respekt warns, however, that the project is just as short-sighted as environmental groups have been saying since the 1990’s, since it cuts through the unique Central Bohemian nature reserve. Critics of the environmental groups in the 1990’s complained that building anything but the quickest, modern motorway to Germany would prove far too expensive, and take too long. Twenty years later, and with a current budget nearly triple the original plans, the argument is less convincing, suggests the weekly magazine.
