Road-blocking protest in Povina, Kysuce, demanding completion of highway bypass - February 16. (source: TASR)
It remains unclear when the highway around the town of Kysucké Nové Mesto in the Žilina Region will be completed, the Pravda daily wrote on February 18. The plans to complete the whole highway are stuck due to finances. Currently, two sections with a total length of 21,990 metres are missing.
Moreover, the Transport Ministry wants to use the funds from the European Union allocated until 2020 on other projects – the completion of highway and dual carriageway sections under construction near Žilina and Zvolen, and the launch of construction of the Prešov bypass on the D1 highway, as well as the R4 dual carriageway around Košice. It is probable that in the next period of planning, resources for road infrastructure will be limited, Pravda wrote.
The government does not want to use state money, either, and is considering other ways of financing.
Trying to point to the unbearable situation in the region, the inhabitants blocked the first-class road close to Kysucké Nové Mesto last week.
The planned highway should bypass the town in two sections: parts of the D3 highway Žilina, Brodno – Kysucké Nové Mesto; and D3 highway Kysucké Nové Mesto – Oščadnica are the last ones of this road that are just being prepared. Other sections are either already completed, or under construction.
The Transport Ministry admits that if the state wants to start construction on the missing sections, including two parts of the D3 highway, it has to release the constitutional debt brake. If this happened, the government would be able to use cheap money and borrow finances under a low interest rate. The government, however, would fail to achieve its plan for a balanced budget in 2019.
