The end of rumbling, promises Prague. The Hlávka bridge is first (only) paved
It was created by the bridge over the island of Štvanice in 1912, when it was replaced by a temporary wooden footbridge. Fifty years later, however, at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, the communists had the historic building, under which he signed, among others, the famous architect Pavel Janák, widened and turned the bridge into a highway in the center of the capital. From the beginning, the Hlávek Bridge also includes a tram line.
But the second busiest Prague bridge over the Vltava has been visibly decaying for years. In 2018 and 2019, experts found out, confirmed the conclusion the need for its repair. The load-bearing structure of the bridge is on the classification scale at level VI (very bad), only the emergency “seven” is worse. The substructure is a little better with grade V (bad). According to the mayor’s deputy for transport, Adam Scheinherr (Prague himself), Hlávek Bridge is a “disgrace”.
“Today, the road from one side to the other due to the rumble resembles a forest meadow,” the Prague councilor wrote on the social network, promising that the “rumble” would be over. “It is no longer possible to let the driver suffer. Despite the fact that this fix reduces the speed of decay. This will again simplify its planned overall reconstruction and lighten the city coffers, “added Scheinherr.
The state fund contributed to the repair
“In the first phase, before the start of the complete reconstruction, the emergency road will be repaired. This is a total paving of the existing surface, where the paving will be completely dismantled, leveling the unevenness of the bottom layer and paving the original granite blocks into the roadway, “said TSK in a press release, stating that the paving will cost five million crowns. Prague raised funds from the State Fund for Transport Infrastructure (SFDI).
“We will do everything to ensure that the work has the lowest possible impact on the flow of traffic. However, we will not avoid local lane restrictions, “the municipal company told motorists. The road on the bridge will therefore be repaired in several stages so that a “narrow throat” does not form and columns do not form on the main road in Wilsonova Street, or on the other hand in Holešovice and Malá Strana. Around the Štvanice tram stop, however, workers narrowed down into one lane still cannot avoid it.
Scheinherr begs the driver for patience
“I ask the driver to be patient for at least the first week before the traffic sits down,” Scheinherr said to the section of the public who feared a traffic collapse. Some also argue that paving money is a waste of money. The management of the metropolis calculates that in connection with the overall reconstruction, the road surface on the Hlávka bridge will be made of so-called quiet asphalt.
As the historic building is a protected cultural monument, Scheinherr et al. coordinate the procedure with conservationists. The Prague City Hall also takes into account the upcoming project of the Vltava Philharmonic, which – in the words of the mayor’s deputy – will change the “dynamics of the whole territory, including transport”.
“We do not close our eyes to the condition of the bridges,” Councilor Scheinherr assured himself for the coalition of Pirates, Prague and himself (TOP 09, STAN, KDU-ČSL), whose civic activism he brought into communal politics in an effort to demolish the Libeň Bridge. According to an earlier statement by the municipality, the Hlávka bridge should be repaired by 2025.
