Prague will pay a fine of 11 million for the Troja Bridge. It’s different than it competed for, and three times more expensive
The price of the Troja Bridge, which is part of the Blanka tunnel, has almost tripled from less than half a billion. In addition, the capital city of Prague had a completely different one built than the one that originally competed for Metrostav. The Antimonopoly Office therefore fined Prague 11 million crowns.
Brno /Prague – The capital must pay an eleven million fine for being part of the tunnel complex White built a different bridge than the one originally left to compete Metrostav. In addition, the new Troja Bridge was originally supposed to cost less than half a billion crowns, but in the end it came to 1.3 billion, ie almost three times as much.
The chairman decided on the fine Office for the Protection of Competition Petr Rafaj. The decision is final. “A completely different bridge was built, which does not correspond to the original design visually or in terms of price,” said Rafaj, who confirmed the first-instance verdict of the office after the appeal of Prague.
The city does not agree with the decision and points out that the current town hall officials are not to blame. “The construction of the Troja Bridge is a historical remnant. Prague will file a lawsuit against the decision. We will try to at least minimize the measured one,” said Vít Hofman, a spokesman for the office. He no longer answered the question of whether the city will want to pay the fine to a specific culprit.
In the contract for the construction of the Blanka tunnel, which was awarded to Metrostav in 2006, the Troja Bridge was valued at 495 million crowns. But the city then decided to have another built. And it announced an architectural competition for the design of the Troja Bridge, which was won by the Roman Koucký Architectural Office together with the design company Mott McDonald. And the final price finally reached 1.3 billion crowns.
However, there was no competition for the construction of the new bridge – it was built by Metrostav on the basis of the original contract for Blanka. However, Prague and Metrostav claimed that the price of 1.3 billion is not overpriced. And that it is an extremely structurally complex and world-unique bridge.
Was it worth building for half a billion?
Politics has also long considered whether they would charge anyone for overpricing the bridge and commissioning another building. Jiří Toman, the then head of the municipal investments and a close friend of Mayor Pavel Bémy, was in her viewfinder. But the investigation was eventually lost.
This is despite the fact that the original authors of the new form of the Troja Bridge calculated the costs of its construction even lower than the previous bridge was supposed to cost, at 434 million crowns. And a similar part – 465 million crowns – was also reached by Questima experts, who recalculated its price. However, politics eventually postponed. She failed to prove intention.
The verdict on the fine fell almost two years after it was put into operation the most. Rafaj time by saying that the case was complicated and the office ruled repeatedly.
He did not harm, on the contrary, they saved millions
Toman’s successor, Jan Beránek, eventually stood trial. This is due to the way in which the stalemate was resolved during the construction of Blanka, of which the Troja Bridge is a part. Beránek has awarded contracts for the classification of work performed for thirty crowns, so that he knows which of them the city can reimburse without fear and for which he must announce additional contracts. According to plaintiff Iva Bican, she repealed the law and sent her to court.
However, the courts upheld the Lamb and last Wednesday of the Lamb acquitted the charges. On the contrary, the prosecutor and the police underwent sharp criticism – according to them, Beránek, on the other hand, probably protected hundreds of millions of crowns with the capital and prevented the construction from stopping.