New “plug” on the D1 motorway. The bridge near Prague was discreetly removed from the repair plan
On the D1 motorway near Velká Bíteš, they are repairing the left part of the motorway bridge these weeks. It’s a little incognito. This construction contract, which we won for Metrostav, is no longer part of the official modernization of the main Czech highway between Prague and Brno, the completion of which the government would like to boast before the elections.
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After the reconstruction, the two motorway sections adjacent to the bridge were put into operation in 2015 and 2017, most of which were delayed. Separating its repairs into a separate construction project will not in any way prolong the renovation of the entire motorway. They have jobs end in July, which the modernization of the D1 should, according to the government ‘s ideas, end at the beginning of October, ie just before the parliamentary elections.
This is not the only case where construction work on bridges has been removed outside the official modernization.
Additionally, a reconstruction of the unique one is also being prepared two-storey Vojslavický bridge across the river Želivka. Even this listed work would no longer limit the drivers on the D1. The upper bridge has already been reconstructed, only the lower floor is waiting for repairs, which crosses the road III across the river. class.
Nevertheless, there is a third “hidden” place, the repair of which affects the operation of the D1 after the reconstruction without a doubt. The bridge over the valley with the Šmejkalka stream, which stands behind Prague near Senohrab on the 24th kilometer of the motorway. You can probably expect new columns here as well.
Discreetly removed from the list
The Šmejkalka Bridge still remembers the protectorate and is located in places that today belong to the busiest in the Czech Republic. In order for traffic not to completely collapse here and to maintain traffic in the 2 + 2 lane system, it will be necessary to build a temporary bridge over the valley. It will grow to the right of the existing D1 (in the direction of Prague – Brno).
Ten years ago, when the modernization of the D1 was just about to take place, the then head of the ŘSD, Jiří Švorc, said that most of Šmejkalek would have to be repaired first of all due to the state of emergency. “At that time, it really seemed like a priority, an opinion was prepared on it, if I remember correctly,” Jiří Švorc recalls with a distance.
He has no idea why the priority changed fundamentally after his departure, when the state of affairs certainly did not improve.
In any case, in 2018, there was talk that the dilapidated bridge would be repaired as part of the last stage of the D1 reconstruction, but in the end it was inconspicuously deleted from the D1 modernization plan, because it is said to not fit into it at all.
If this did not happen and remained on the list, the official ribbon-cutting on the Prague-Brno route would certainly not have taken place before this year’s elections, as government officials led by Minister of Transport Karel Havlíček are trying, but perhaps in three or four years.
One plot is still missing
The Šmejkalka event will clearly be one of the most demanding operations during the overhaul of the D1, which politicians prefer not to talk to the public at the time of the end of modernization.
It is now expected that the reconstruction will begin most in the second quarter of next year at the earliest, but rather in the second half of the year. However, even this is not yet a 100% deadline. The management of ŘSD admits that it has still not been able to buy all the land under the bridge from private owners, which it mainly needs to build a temporary building.
“I am glad that we are gradually succeeding in obtaining individual building permits and that we have already expropriated most of the necessary land, but we still lack one, it has not yet been definitively won,” said Radek Mátl, the current CEO of ŘSD, in an interview with Seznam Zprávy.
Why couldn’t I add stripes
It is Radek Mátl, who was in the modernization of the D1 to a lower position from the very beginning, today sees as a mistake that Šmejkalka was originally merged into the modernization.
According to him, in terms of legal acts, this is a much more demanding action. In contrast to the reconstruction of the D1, it is not possible without a zoning decision and complicated expropriation.
“On Šmejkalka, we can clearly see what complications would be worth if we extended the entire D1 motorway by another lane in each direction. All drivers would certainly expand their wishes, there is no doubt about that, but it would take another few years, because it is as practical a process as preparing a completely new highway, ”says director Mátl.
In a new form, another lane should fit on the bridge in each direction if, by chance, the highway eventually widened.
Price: 1.4 million
As already indicated, the reconstruction of Šmejkalka will not be technically easy either, if the motorway is to be passable in the two-lane mode in both directions at all times.
Due to the expected great variability of the work process, ŘSD wants to enter the entire contract in the form of “design and build”. This means that the state organization provides the contractor with land and supplies him with a building permit, with the proviso that detailed design is already in the competence of the construction company that will win the contract.
“The contractor can make full use of his know-how and optimize the construction process according to the technologies available to him so as to minimize the impact of the construction on public operation,” notes Jan Studecký, a spokesman for ŘSD.
The estimated price of this contract is relatively high – 1.4 billion crowns (to compare the entire official eight-year modernization 160 due to the highway between Mirošovice and Kývalka, it will cost around 24 billion crowns).
The tender is to be launched later this quarter. During the reconstruction of the bridge, the existing arch of the substructure will be preserved. The other parts are to be rebuilt.
Limit “only” 800 meters
Either ŘSD strives to keep the impacts on transport to a minimum, and the management of the state organization admits that Šmejkalka can create a new transport “plug” in the coming years near Prague. At the same time, most drivers have hopes that the long-term traffic martyrdom on the D1 will end soon.
“It can cause a certain problem – especially in those rush hours, but it’s only a short limit, about 800 meters. It is not several dozen more in one piece, as was the case at the time of the culminating modernization of the D1, “Mátl sees a significant difference in terms of the threat to the columns.
And to all those who believed that after the autumn completion of work, the main Czech road artery will be quiet for several years, the director says that the highway is a living organism on which there will always be some traffic restrictions.