30 years since the opening of the highway from Prague to Bratislava

Prague - The D1 highway is the oldest, longest, and in some sections also the most trafficked highway in the Czech Republic. For a long time, it was also the only longer continuous highway construction. 30 years ago, on November 8, 1980, the last missing sections of D1 between Prague and Brno, as well as the remaining parts of D2 from Brno to the Slovak capital, Bratislava, were opened. The highway, which measured 317 km, thus became a true road "backbone" of the then Czechoslovak Federation after decades of planning and construction.
    The construction of the current D1 began in September 1967 with the "Prague" section Spořilov - Čestlice. After decades, the earlier plans to build a backbone highway across then Czechoslovakia were fulfilled, which had been interrupted by World War II and subsequently halted by the post-war political situation. The construction of the D1 highway was already approved on November 4, 1938, and it was intended to connect Prague and Subcarpathian Ruthenia by highway. Construction began on May 2, 1939, but work was interrupted by the war.
    After the war, construction was resumed on a limited scale, but in 1950 it was again halted. In 1963, the government approved a concept for the long-term development of the road and highway network, which was to have a total of 1711 km (including Slovakia). The backbone was precisely the D1 highway, 712 km long, which, unlike today, was to continue from Brno through Uherské Hradiště to Slovakia all the way to Košice.
    After the dissolution of the federation, the D1 route was diverted from Brno to Ostrava, ending at Lipník nad Bečvou. The last change was the decision to also change the under-construction D47, which connects Lipník nad Bečvou with Ostrava and the Polish border, to D1. In total, D1 will reach a length of 377 km.

Milestones of the construction of highways D1 and D2:
November 4, 1938 - Start of highway construction (sections roughly along the route of today's D1); construction partly continued during the war.
1950 - Highway construction halted.
September 8, 1967 - The start of the D1 construction Spořilov (Prague) - Čestlice marked the renewal of highway construction in the country.
July 12, 1971 - The first highway section opened on the territory of Czechoslovakia: D1 Prague - Mirošovice (length 21.3 km).
October 4, 1978 - The first section of D2 opened (Brno - Blučina, 11.7 km).
November 8, 1980 - Opens section D1 Humpolec - Pávov (20.7 km) and sections D2 Hustopeče - border with Slovakia (26 km); the last sections opened between Prague and Brno and Bratislava.
July 30, 1992 - With the commissioning of the Tučapy - Vyškov section (9.6 km), D1 was extended to about 230 km for a long time.
March 15, 1999 - The first phase of the construction of D47 (now D1) began.
December 1, 2007 - The first part of D47 opened between Ostrava and Bohumín (17.2 km).
September 16, 2009 - The ŘSD opened the D1 Mořice-Kojetín section, which allows uninterrupted travel on D1 from Prague to Kroměříž - creating the longest continuous highway section so far (261 km).
November 25, 2009 - Two D47 sections were opened between Bělotín, Hladké Životice, and Bílovec. The highway, previously called D47, was officially renamed to D1. With the commissioning of the new 30 kilometers, the Ostrava region was connected to the national highway network (the missing part of D1 in the Kroměříž - Přerov - Lipník nad Bečvou section, which should be commissioned in 2014, is temporarily replaced by the R46 Vyškov - Olomouc and part of R35 Olomouc - Lipník nad Bečvou).

Selected key information about the D1 highway
Route: Prague-Jihlava-Brno-Vyškov-Lipník nad Bečvou-Ostrava-Poland
Length: 377 km, in operation 335 km (Prague-Kroměříž, Ostrava-Bohumín), 42 km under construction or in preparation (Kroměříž - Lipník nad Bečvou, Bohumín - border with Poland)
Start of construction: September 8, 1967; the highway began to be built on May 2, 1939, but construction was interrupted by the war
Expected end of construction: year 2014, section Říkovice-Přerov
Category: the highway has two traffic lanes in each direction; due to the high intensity of traffic, the first 21 km from Prague to Mirošovice were reconstructed into two lanes in each direction from 1996 to 1999; similar expansion is planned around Brno and possibly in other sections.

Selected key information about the D2 highway
Route: Brno - Břeclav - border with Slovakia
Length: 61 km, in operation
Start of construction: October 1974; section Brno - Blučina.
Opening of the last section: November 8, 1980, sections Hustopeče - Břeclav and Břeclav - border with Slovakia.
Category: the highway has two traffic lanes in each direction.