D11 1109 Trutnov – state border CR/PR: The largest building designed in Valbek

We present an interview with Pavel Šmerda, chief engineer of the D11 1109 Trutnov project. What you will hear most often in the news about the so-called Hradec Králové motorway is that while in Poland it has already been completed to the border, here you will find the border section only on paper. The longest section of the D11 motorway – 21 km – is being designed by Valbek under the direction of Pavel Šmerda. Read more about when you can ride it all the way to the Baltic Sea.

The D11 motorway is based on plans from 1939 – are they still up to date? Did they envisage such a traffic development? With vehicles of today’s size? Or perhaps the need to build bio-corridors?

I assume that even though the 1939 concept was based on the standards and traffic situation at the time, it was, like today, thinking decades ahead. Regardless of this, the development of buildings is always based on up-to-date information, both in technical terms and in terms of future traffic volumes.

In the first phase of the planning process, the alignment and height of such major constructions are examined in a study, the environmental impact assessment (EIA) is carried out and then the route corridor is incorporated into the land-use plans. With each stage of the documentation, the detail is deepened and other construction details that need to be dealt with are specified. In some cases, the route may need to be slightly modified, both in direction and height. In our case, for example, the route passes through a fortification belt and, after surveying the existing terrain, we found that the highway body encroached on one of the bunkers, and these are certainly to be avoided, but at the same time it was necessary to respect the aforementioned corridor recorded in the municipalities’ zoning plans.

As far as biocorridors are concerned, I do not know about 1939, but it is a very sensitive subject nowadays and any new construction must ensure migration permeability and respect the migration corridors of wildlife.

How is Valbek involved in the D11 highway?

Valbek is currently involved in the design of the newly opened section 1106 Hradec Králové – Smiřice and is designing the section 1109 Trutnov – state border Czech Republic/PR, which is the last section of D11 on Czech territory. It is the longest section of the entire D11, measuring over 21 kilometres and passing through mountainous terrain. Unlike the flat sections in Hradec Králové, where our colleagues had to contend with minimal gradients, we are dealing with maximum gradients in this section.

The project includes 2 tunnels, 3 off-grade crossings, 28 bridge structures. Thirteen bridges are longer than 100 metres and three of them are large bridge structures: the 715 m bridge over Poříčí, the 670 m bridge over the Líčná River valley and the 330 m Lampertice bridge. In connection with the motorway, we are designing two large rest areas (Bernartice and Královec) based on the concept of our colleague Jina. They will provide parking for cars, trucks and buses, as well as a petrol station, refreshments and sanitary facilities. Snow ramps will be placed at the exit of the rest areas where truck drivers will be able to clear the snow-covered roof to avoid endangering other road users with the layer of snow and ice that often flies off trucks. The rest areas include an area reserved for the Czech Police to check trucks. In the case of the Bernartice rest area, it is a bay, while in the case of the Královec rest area, which is located in the direction of the Polish border, it is an entire checkpoint. This will allow not only the checking but also the parking of trucks that would not be able to continue their journey after the check.

Valbek is also designing a motorway management and maintenance centre in the vicinity of the Střítež MÚK.

At what stage is your work now?

At the moment, the planning permission for section 1109 is in legal force. We have prepared the documentation for the building permit, we are dealing with engineering and land purchases are in progress. In parallel, we are preparing documentation for the selection of a contractor, which should be ready in concept by September next year. After that, we will go through the comment process and issue a clean draft. By the beginning of 2023, the investor will have the documentation on the basis of which it will be able to launch a tender for the selection of the contractor. If everything goes well, construction could start towards the end of 2023.

And how do you estimate the implementation time?

The lead time will depend primarily on the investor’s specifications and the subsequent deployment of the contractor’s equipment. The construction includes two tunnels of approximately 500 m in length, each with two tunnel tubes for each direction, three relatively complex bridge structures, both of which will have a major impact on the construction time. If the contractor has two punching shields, it is certainly possible to punch both tunnels at the same time, and the same applies to the large bridges that need to be worked on in parallel. If the contractor makes full use of its capacity, it will theoretically be possible to accelerate the construction time by many months from the corresponding 4 years. At the same time, it must be taken into account that we are at an altitude of over 500 m above sea level, where a longer winter period may also have an impact on the construction time. It will depend a lot on the way in which the Regional Directorate of Transport will launch the tender.

What professions in Valbek were involved in the design of the building?

Practically all professions have contributed to the D11 project in Valbek – from colleagues from the surveying group, who surveyed the existing terrain, prepared the borehole study and geometric plans, to road builders, bridge builders, tunnel builders, water engineers, who are responsible for all the water management facilities, the civil engineering department dealing with the Motorway Management and Maintenance Centre in Střítež, and last but not least the environmental group, which, among other things, is designing vegetation along the entire motorway route. Such a project will employ the entire group and is the largest ever road construction project designed by Valbek.

There has been a big delay in the construction of the entire motorway in recent years – can you say in general terms what caused it?

Probably the biggest delay occurred in a very well-known media case, when construction was delayed for many years by land disputes. At present, the purchase of land for transport-significant buildings is greatly simplified by existing legislation.

Within section 1109, everything is going relatively well as far as design and engineering activities are concerned. Probably the most significant thing we had to deal with during the design work was the extension of one bridge span and the design of a new bridge at the expense of a high embankment. Both of these came from the recommendations of a detailed geotechnical investigation. Another modification had to be dealt with when the new AOPK (Agency for Nature and Landscape Protection) methodology was issued in 2020 – “Transport and protection of fauna in the Czech Republic” – when one bridge structure for the transfer of large mammals did not suit the newly anchored biocorridor and had to be extended by one bridge span.

Are all bridge structures designed for wildlife migration?

Yes, with the exception of this one particular bridge, all other bridge structures met the requirements for game movement during migration and so it was not necessary to design separate ecoducts. With respect to this issue, I consider the challenging bridge and tunnel structures that resulted from the terrain configuration to be a tremendous advantage because they greatly contributed to reducing the barrier effect of the highway on animal migration. In addition, as recommended in the detailed migration study, we added culverts for small mammals and amphibians.

In Poland, the S3 expressway connects to the motorway – is this their equivalent of a motorway or is it really a lower class road?

A few years ago we had a similar situation here. In relation to prospective traffic volumes, roads were designed either as motorways or expressways. At the end of 2015, the categorisation was changed and most expressways were converted to motorways (so-called Class II motorways). Even our section of the D11 motorway was originally designed as an expressway. Nowadays, they differ from each other by the design category of the road, in simple terms – the width arrangement. Within our section we even have two of these design categories. The motorway in the section ZÚ – MÚK Střítež is designed in the design category D 26.0/130, in the section MÚK Střítež – MÚK Královec in the design category D 21.5/110, with the exception that in the section MÚK Královec – the state border in the last directional curve there is a transition to the Polish width arrangement. The transition between the individual categories is always solved in the area of off-grade intersections (MÚK) and when changing the number of lanes – turning/connecting lanes.

And how does it look with the connecting S3 expressway in Poland?

The Polish side is much further along with the construction of the motorway, while the cross-border section is already under construction. It needs about 31 km to connect to the existing S3 and should be completed in 2023. In Poland, they have a much simpler permitting process and subsequent implementation of such major constructions. However, there are better times ahead in our country too, helped by the so-called line law and specialised construction authorities.

At the same time, a merged planning and construction procedure would help, which would eliminate double hearings and the associated time delays in the event of an appeal.

I think that speeding up the whole process is a theme of more than one government, so let us be surprised how the current government will progress on this.

Have you visited the Polish side and has there been any communication between the Polish and Czech sides in the preparation of the documentation?

I went to see what the border with Poland looks like this autumn, unfortunately, because of the weather, there was not much to see, but the outline of the motorway is already clearly visible.

Communication between us and the Polish designers was through the investors of both constructions. The axis and its alignment and height were given from the study phase onwards, and the width arrangement at the border was also agreed. Nevertheless, with each successive design stage, the documents were exchanged and checked to avoid possible conflicts.