Prague has six new bridges, there is only one on the horizon
There are six new connections across the Vltava in the zoning plan. Prague needs them all, but it will wait a long time for most of them.
If Prague had been a good manager, Karlín would have connected the new bridge with Holešovice for a long time, and the Libeň Bridge would have been repaired without traffic collapse and fuss. The Cubist work would be preserved and the town hall would not plan to replace it with meaningless “gems” of the highway type. Despite stress tests that have shown that a four-lane bridge is not needed inside the city at all. If the state worked at least a little, the bridge would have stood near Suchdol for quite a few years as part of the Prague Ring Road, which would suck transit traffic out of the metropolis. At the same time, the capital would not have to be in such trouble, even though the maintenance of the bridges was such that I now had to deal with their emergency situation as a matter of urgency.
However, it is the current tragic situation that has inspired us to find out where it plans to build new connections everywhere in the metropolis. After all, the last bridge is the Trojský, which was built in 2014 as part of the Blanka tunnel complex. He is beautiful, but we are not leading a bit yet and his time will come when Bubny and another part of Holešovice will be built. Leaving aside the Lahovice flyover, the last important bridge – the Barrandov one – was left to us by the Communists. It is a concrete monster whose brutalistic charm is not easy to discover, you will not see the river from it, but it is indispensable for traffic.
What one divides does not connect the most
When looking for where Prague is going to cross the Vltava everywhere, we will start in the south. Here the metropolis has a relatively large bridge debt – between Zbraslav and Palacký Bridge there is actually only Barrandovský. And believe it or not (believe in general construction paralysis in the metropolis), this is where a new bridge is born, which connects Prague 4 and 5. It is called Dvorecký and after Trojský it should be a Prague bridge for the 21st century. Teams of architects and designers are now designing its design in a two-round competition. “It is sloping and will only be for trams, pedestrians and cyclists, not for passenger transport. I was fundamentally against it, it should also be for cars, “says Roman Koucký, who is also a co-author of the Troja Bridge. As the head of the current Metropolitan Plan Office, the Institute of Planning and Development of the City of Prague (IPR) has a perfect overview of where new commas lead across the river in the new zoning plan.
“The density of connecting the banks in Prague is uneven and the new bridges would really suit Prague 5. The Dvorecký Bridge should stand tomorrow, “says the mayor of Prague 5, Pavel Richter, and realistically adds that he will be satisfied if the winner of the competition is known, at least until the autumn municipal elections. However, he regrets that the Dvorecký Bridge will not be for cars, he considers it an unfortunate decision, which in the spirit of folk wisdom respects a better sparrow in the hand than the pigeon on the roof respects.
Bridges usually connect, not Dvorecký. It has been painted since the 1990s, but the two neighboring parts of the city could not agree on what it would bring to whom. Prague 2 promised itself that it could relieve the congested arteries of Ječná and Žitná, and therefore requested that it operate for passenger transport. However, this was terrified of Prague 4, which wanted to keep Jeremenkova Street calm. The compromise that eliminated the resistance of Prague 4 is therefore public transport, the integrated system and cyclists.
“The southern tram tangent, which will connect Smíchov, Pankrác and Budějovická, is important,” Koucký explains why, in the end, the planners agreed with the car-free bridge. Compared to the original variant connected to Jeremenkova Street, the Dvorecký Bridge is moved a little further north. In the current tram stop Dvorce, a transfer “public transport hub” will be created, from where it will be possible to go to Smíchov, up to Pankrác or along the waterfront to the city center. “The bridge is important because the trams have already encountered capacity at the Anděl junction. And the state of the Barrandov Bridge, which will not have to be reconstructed, is no secret. Now, in fact, there is no detour, ”the mayor of Prague 5 ensures that Prague can look forward to another major traffic collapse in a few days.
However, the Metropolitan Plan outlines a bridge that could also be used for cars. It would lead above Zlíchov and lead to Křížová Street. It would be about 600 meters long. And as the last of the last bridges, sometime in the distant future, the Na Dolinách bridge, which would probably be the longest in Prague, could cross the Vltava between Smíchov and Podolí. It led through the center of Císařská louka and connected the banks so as to relieve the Palacký and Jirásek bridges. And we ended up with this bridge in the south. Then it only needs to be repaired, the building should start again at the opposite end of Prague.
How about a cable car?
In the north, a bridge is being prepared for the northern tram tangent, which will one day lead to Bohnice. It will connect with Dejvice and the tram should stop at the zoo. The cable car, which the organizer of Prague’s public transport, ROPID, is already seriously talking about, is starting to compete with the bridge. But there is no agreement on this connection yet, so the Metropolitan Plan is missing, so let’s go back to the regular bridge to Holešovice. “The bridge that connects them with Karlín is absolutely essential. Prague cannot be without him. It will be a city bridge, I would say an observation bridge, from which there will be amazing views of Prague Castle and Hradčany, “architect Roman Koucký does not deny. Prague is a good example of the fact that bridges can be perfect architectural works that are worth a separate walk with an explanation. And the bridge could be another one.
No one doubted the need for a new bridge in Holešovice in the past, but its position often changed. Many of them were designed from different streets. The connection between Thámova and Komunardů streets mostly won, but for many reasons this is not really possible. “In Prague, it is generally difficult to build bridges because they have to be dimensioned for the 2002 floods, plus one meter – the usual deposit requirement is 50 centimeters above the century water, in Prague it is much higher – which means huge blows to the embankment or bridges. put it on the streets. This is one of the reasons why it is not possible to make a ‘replica’ of the Troja footbridge – the ramps would be too long. The Holešovice bridge should continue further from the axis of Urxova street and thus into Jateční.
Then we only have the bridge near Suchdol, which is part of one of the sections of the Prague ring road (519). If it seems that the Běchovice part of the circuit in the east of the city will eventually be pushed through the permitting process after a series of vicissitudes with “activists” and it could be driven around by 2025, it is even more difficult with the northern part. Opponents of the construction are even more stubborn here and in difficult terrain they are said to have more arguments or pretexts than their colleagues in the fields near Běchovice.
However, we will stick to the principle that the route is no longer written about, in order to maintain the hope that this bridge could also stand around 2030. Suchdol Bridge was conquered as a two-storey bridge some twenty years ago, from which perhaps the investor – the Directorate of Roads and Motorways – has definitively backed down. Prague deserves new bridges, but not so unique.
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