Builders want to limit projects, Minister Bárta is currently satisfied

Prague - Construction companies have offered the state savings of around six billion crowns in the current road construction. However, they have not touched their margins; they want to save money by omitting certain components of the projects. This was communicated to ČTK today by a reliable source. According to Jakub Ptačinský from the press department of the Ministry of Transport, Minister Vít Bárta expressed a "certain satisfaction" regarding the delivered document.
    Bárta threatened the companies that construction would stop without discounts. The construction companies were supposed to deliver a list of discounts they are offering to the state to the Road and Motorway Directorate, and today the head of the Directorate, Alfred Brunclík, presented the proposals to the minister. However, the companies consider reducing margins to be impossible and instead propose to omit "unnecessaries" that have, for example, been insisted upon by local governments or environmental organizations.
    This includes things like bike paths, noise barriers, or wildlife bridges. Bárta now intends to discuss the proposals with the members of the economic committee and representatives of the academic community, and he will also meet again with the company directors.
    He wants to present the final list of constructions intended for halting on Friday. In an interview with ČTK, he admitted the theoretical possibility that construction would not be halted this year. "However, I am not such an optimist," the minister said. He named the streamlining of construction, including project preparation, as his main tasks.
    According to the spokesperson of the Road and Motorway Directorate, Martina Vápeníková, there are currently projects under construction worth a total of 200 billion crowns, of which 120 billion has already been invested. Thus, there is still a need for 80 billion crowns to complete the currently under-construction roads.
    The minister showed a kinder face to the road builders today than to his colleagues from the railway sector. According to Bárta, the companies offered "tiny discounts" for the railway sector, to which the minister responded by halting railway construction.
    According to Pavel Halla, spokesperson for the Railway Infrastructure Administration, however, construction cannot be halted overnight. Therefore, the administration is currently preparing a list of constructions and a schedule for their termination to avoid damaging already completed parts. The administration must also take into account Czech Railways, as in many places train service interruptions are due to construction. According to Halla, the costs for the preservation of the constructions have not yet been quantified.
   
    Examples of currently largest constructions - some of which are at risk of being halted:
   
Construction - section (price according to contract; excluding VAT), contractor

    source: ŘSD