History
With increasing automobile traffic in the 1930s in Czechoslovakia discussions were brought forward regarding the construction of new roads designed to carry the large volume of traffic. The discussions dealt with a backbone road from Bohemia, through Moravia and Slovakia to Carpathian Ruthenia with many variants. The plan of a Cheb – Plzeň – Německý Brod – Brno – Žilina - Užgorod – Chust highway was the one chosen, which was sponsored by the Bata Shoes company owner Jan Antonín Baťa in 1937. A year later the detailed project was ready to be realized.
The Munich Agreement in 1938 deprived the country of some fundamental road and rail routes. The government hurried works for the preparation of three major infrastructure projects to the new borders, the Německý Brod - Brno railway, the Plzeň - Ostrava road and a 4-lane highway from Prague to Velký Bočkov (on the Czechoslovak - Romanian border). The project for the first segment Prague - Lužná was ready in January 1939, and construction began on 24 January in Chřiby on the Zástřizly - Lužná segment.
The German occupation of Czechoslovakia brought only small technical changes to the project and the construction of another segment Prague - Humpolec began in May 1939. The increasing demands of World War II slowed down the construction and the works were completely halted in 1942. After the war the works were resumed mainly on major bridges in 1946, but only with a small workforce. The segment in Chřiby was abandoned in 1949 and the segment Prague - Humpolec one year later. All 77 km remain in disuse.
In 2008, civil engineers have said that there is an average of 50,000 motorists that passes through D1 motorways daily, 20% of the said motorists are new passers-by.
Read more about this topic: D1 Motorway (Czech Republic)
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