The municipality of Sulec in the Louny region has a new bypass
The final transit through a municipality in the Ústí nad Labem Region on the route from Prague to Chomutov has been resolved – the Road and Motorway Directorate of the Czech Republic is today placing into operation a new construction within the gradual increasing of the capacity of the current I/7 road to the four-lane R7 high-speed road leading from Prague to Chomutov.
“Over the last few years, in the section from the border between the Central Bohemia and Ústí nad Labem Regions to Postoloprty, bypasses at Panenský Týnec, Chlumčany, Louny and Postoloprty were built in a half four-lane on the I/7 road,” says Alfred Brunclík, Chief Executive Officer of the Road and Motorway Directorate of the Czech Republic (ŘSD). The four-lane R7 road has already been completed from Prague to Slaný. In compliance with the respective government resolution, the I/7 road from Slaný to Chomutov will be converted to the R7 high-speed road. With regard to the complicated mountainous terrain in the area from Chomutov to Hora Svatého Šebestiána, and owing to the extremely high costs for building a high-speed road in this section, a bypass of the I/7 road was constructed in the last few years as a two-lane road with ascending and descending lanes.
Sulec is the last village on the I/7 road in the Ústí nad Labem Region, where currently vehicles drive through an area which is unsatisfactory in traffic terms. The old I/7 road here followed a straight route, thus allowing for fast transit through the village. The adjacent built-up area has driveways to land directly connected to the I/7 road, and in the village this road is level-crossed by the III/23739 road from Toužetín to Bedřichovice. The bypass will divert traffic beyond the municipality’s built-up area. One of the most significant reasons for the rebuilding of the I/7 road was the aim to provide transport serviceability to the industrial zones near Most, Louny and Postoloprty, and, above all, the strategic Žatec-Triangle industrial zone – one of the largest in the Czech Republic, built on the site of a former military airfields.
The project is co-financed by the European Union from Structural Funds, namely, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), within the Operational Programme Transport. The European Union’s non-repayable contribution, amounting up to 85% of the eligible costs, has been granted within Priority 4, in the “Modernisation of Class I Roads outside of TEN-T” support area.
The Sulec bypass has been designed as a high-speed thoroughfare in the R25.5/100 category, yet for the time being will be designated as a road in the S category. After the linking up sections have been placed into operation, the road will be re-designated as a high-speed thoroughfare.
Project information:
Project name: R7 Sulec - bypass
Location: Ústí nad Labem Region
Price, exclusive of VAT: CZK 549,490,851
Project commencement: 04/2008
Opening: 11/2009
Date: 18.11.2009
