Transport minister appoints new head of motorway directorate


Czech Transport Minister Vít Bárta has sacked the head of the country’s Road and Motorway Directorate and immediately named his successor. The outgoing head of the directorate, Alfred Brunclík, was punished for including a key bridge on the route of the D47 motorway among construction work that the directorate planned to freeze due to cost cutting. The D47 links Ostrava with the rest of the country and continues to the Polish border. His successor, Jiří Švorc, said the directorate would seek maximum savings not just from ongoing construction projects but also operating costs. The directorate has long been under fire for the high construction costs of Czech motorways compared with others in Europe.