Court strikes down attempt to block Prague's ring road

Plans to build the northern portion of the outer ring road passed yet another hurdle yesterday when a city court in Prague has found against the municipality of Dolni Chabry, which had challenged the current route. The municipality and several citizens claimed that part of the route would cause too much disruption to the natural environment. But in the suit, they also demanded that some of the fundamental guidelines for urban development be cancelled, according to the daily newspaper Denik. It reports that the court ruled that their arguments over specific environmental concerns were insufficient and called the formal portion of the suit were political rather than legal in nature. It's a small victory for the city, which has been trying to build a ring road for transit traffic since the 1990's. The most optimistic scenario for the northern portion of the road has it completing in 2028 or 2029. The southeast portion of the road connecting the D1 to Běchovice (12.6 km in total) could be open by 2025, if all goes well. Which is, of course, a pretty big 'if'.