Brno will begin this year with preparatory works for part of the city ring road

Brno - This year, Brno will begin preparatory work for the construction of a section of the large city ring road between the Husovice Tunnel and the future Vinohrad Tunnel. Buildings and other structures standing on the route of the new grade-separated intersections and viaduct will be demolished, which will carry a four-lane road from the Svitava River under Vinohrady to Rokytová Street, said Richard Mrázek (ANO), the deputy mayor, at a press conference today. The Road and Motorway Directorate (ŘSD) will invest approximately four billion crowns, and the city a quarter of a billion.

Demolition work is set to begin this year, with road construction planned between 2019 and 2023. More than a kilometer of new road will start under the lower portal of the Husovice Tunnels and will grade-separately cross Tomkovo Square, which previously experienced the demolition of the old buildings precisely because of the construction of the four-lane bypass. The road will further cross the Svitava River. A new grade-separated intersection for Provazníkovy and Karlovy Streets will be created, and from there, a viaduct will rise over the railway line, the former Židenice barracks area, and will end at Rokytová Street. Here, the road will be prepared for later connection to the Vinohrad Tunnel. "It is still in preparation; geotechnical and geological surveys are being conducted," said David Fiala from ŘSD.

The first demolitions in the barracks area are expected to be completed by the end of the year. In the following two years, dozens of family houses and garages on Provazníkovy, Dolnopolní, and Kaloudovy Streets as well as Tomkovo Square will be razed. More than half of the properties have already been purchased by the city. "It is also necessary to build a cable duct above the Husovice tunnels and to demolish and construct a new Sokolovna in Husovice," added Mrázek. To ensure that detours function properly, the repair of the intersection of Cejl and Zábrdovická Streets and Zábrdovický Bridge must also be completed. During construction, traffic will be maintained in all lanes along the city ring road for most of the time.

Public transport will also be affected by the construction. Trolleybuses from Bohunice will terminate at a new temporary loop at Kohoutova, and buses will operate further to Vinohrady and Líšeň. Tram operations through Tomkovo Square are to be preserved as much as possible.

The construction of the new section of the city ring road aims to relieve the overloaded Svatoplukova and the intersection with Rokytová. Vehicles heading from the Husovice Tunnels to Vinohrady and Líšeň will be able to travel along the viaduct.

In the second half of next year, construction is expected to finally begin on the long-delayed section on Žabovřeská Street in the western part of the city, where there is currently only a two-lane road that acts as a bottleneck on an otherwise capacious road.