IN Brief:
- STRABAG has won a €177m contract for a new section of the D35 motorway in the Czech Republic.
- The 16.3 km Úlibice to Hořice section includes 18 bridge structures and 2,782 metres of noise barriers.
- The project will use 3D machine control and lean delivery methods to support construction and logistics.
STRABAG has won a €177m contract to build a new section of the D35 motorway between Úlibice and Hořice in the Czech Republic.
STRABAG SIS, the company’s Czech road infrastructure specialist, will lead the project as part of a consortium. STRABAG’s share of the contract is 85%, with the total project value equivalent to around CZK 4.3bn.
The scheme covers 16.3 km of motorway and includes 18 bridge structures, a grade-separated junction, drainage systems, utility relocations, and 2,782 metres of noise barriers. Construction began in April 2026 and is expected to last around 46 months, with the road planned to open to traffic after 34 months.
The D35 forms part of the Czech Republic’s national motorway network expansion and sits on the international E442 corridor. The new alignment will replace the existing two-lane I/35 between Úlibice and Hořice, a route used by local traffic and heavy goods vehicles. The project is designed to improve safety, ease congestion, and strengthen regional mobility.
The bridge package will form a substantial part of the work. The 18 structures will have a combined length of 914 metres and will carry the road across watercourses, railways, and local constraints. The project will also require detailed logistics planning around earthworks, drainage, utility interfaces, traffic management, and noise mitigation.
STRABAG said modern 3D machine control and lean construction methods will be used to support efficient construction and logistics. Digital machine guidance, model-based workflows, and data-led production control are increasingly being used on European road projects to manage earthworks accuracy, reduce rework, and coordinate multi-disciplinary infrastructure packages.
The contract also highlights continued road investment in Central Europe. While some mature European markets are focused heavily on maintenance, safety upgrades, decarbonisation, and retrofit, countries with expanding motorway networks continue to require large-scale new-build capacity. Those programmes remain important for freight movement, regional development, and cross-border connectivity.
The D35 is strategically important because motorway capacity can shift freight flows away from overloaded local roads and improve journey reliability between industrial and logistics centres. Long linear projects, however, remain exposed to weather, ground conditions, permitting, rail and utility interfaces, local access constraints, and extended material movements.
The use of in-house group resources should give STRABAG greater control over quality, logistics, and programme coordination, although major road projects remain exposed to cost inflation, material supply, labour availability, and environmental constraints. The Czech project shows how European transport investment is continuing while contractors are expected to deliver with tighter digital control, clearer logistics planning, and stronger evidence of programme certainty.
