Prague needs a bridge over the “triple bridge”, both the Ministry and the Railway Administration claim. The locals continue to riot, saying that the construction will destroy the park
photo: Jakub Mračno, PrahaIN.cz/The construction of a bridge at a height of up to forty meters should interfere with this color of the Smetanka park, which the local people do not like.
According to the Ministry of Transport, the controversial project of bridging the railway “triple junction” in the Smetanka park in Hrdlořezy is absolutely essential for train transport in Prague. The resort promises follow-up constructions that will allow more train passage. However, the locals, together with the Prague 9 town hall, draw attention to other ambiguities of the project, which, according to the opponents, will irrevocably destroy the environment in the popular park.
The current effort of the state enterprise Správa železnik to obtain a zoning decision for the construction of a bridge over the so-called Three-Cut Bridge on the edge of the Smetanka Park in the Rokytka Valley in Prague 9 has long been the target of criticism from local residents.
As PrahaIN.cz already reported in a previous article, the town hall of the ninth city district stood up for the locals as well as the pair of senators Marek Hilšer (MHS) and David Smoljak (for STAN, Piráty and TOP 09). “Senators Hilšer and Smoljak wrote to the minister, of course he answered them,” confirmed František Jemelka, spokesman for the Department of Transport, to PrahaIN.cz.
Absolutely essential construction
According to him, the aforementioned building is “absolutely essential from a transport point of view for trains in Prague and its surroundings”. “If we want to have track capacity for trains on the very busy main corridor from Prague to Ostrava, i.e. in the direction of Kolín as well as sufficient capacity on the track in the direction of Malešice, we need this level crossing,” he answered PrahaIN.cz’s question, stating that the planned modernization “It will remove one of the worst capacity restrictions on the railway network in the Czech Republic”.
According to the Ministry of Transport, the new bridge in Hrdlořež is intended to help thousands of people traveling by train every day and to promote environmentally friendly train transport. “The construction is important from the point of view of increasing the capacity and throughput of the Prague-Libeň and Prague-Kyje sections, respectively Prague-Libeň and Prague-Malešice, where it is necessary to eliminate the collisions of freight trains traveling over the main track,” explained the spokesman when asked by PrahaIN.cz.
Freight or passenger trains?
However, freight train transport is a significant part of the argument of local activists and Prague 9 against the construction in the Smetanka Park, which is planned by the Railway Administration (SŽ). “According to the information we obtained in accordance with the Act on Free Access to Information, the Railway Administration is still not clear about what effect the new multibillion-dollar bridging will actually have on railway transport. In the original plan of the SŽ, the main reason for the construction was the assumption of an increase in freight traffic. However, in the new calculations for the acoustic study, the alleged increase in freight traffic is already neglected and, on the contrary, passenger traffic is mentioned,” the activists state in the statement of the Hrdlořezská zvonička association, which is available to the editors.
According to the activists, this discrepancy “may seem insignificant, but in the context of other suspicious circumstances, it takes on a fatal significance.” “The alleged capacity bottleneck is to be removed by the construction of a double-track bridge, which will cross the existing track above the level. But after about a kilometer, the new two tracks open into a single-track tunnel. It must be clear even to a complete amateur that without the connecting tunnel mentioned earlier, this reason is completely irrelevant, which the activists write, to whom even Prague 9 councilor for the area of transport Tomáš Holeček (ODS) was right in this regard. According to the Ministry of Transport, this is only the beginning of an important transport project.
The Ministry insists on the project and promises continuity
“Consequent constructions in the direction of Malešice and Hostivař are of course also planned, however, somewhere it is said that this section is the most critical, and this level crossing, even on its own, will contribute to the improvement of the situation in an absolutely fundamental way,” responded PrahaIN.cz spokesperson Jemelka.
According to him, the Ministry “insists on the proposed solution according to the content of the documentation, which serves as a basis for the zoning procedure”. “According to the conditions of the zoning decision, we are ready to deal with further, i.e. connected, buildings towards Hrdlořez and further towards Malešice, including the entire southern stretch up to Radotín, which are in various stages of preparation,” he added. He compared the situation on the track in Hrdlořez to an attempt to turn left on a busy road.
Are there projects?
“The capacity of the tunnel is currently theoretically intended, but there are no plans, solutions, studies, budgets for it… simply nothing! At the same time, it should be a prerequisite for the A12 project itself. The construction for a billion will literally move the problem a bit further without conceptual and project continuity. In other words: the problem it is supposed to solve will remain unsolved for the next number of years and maybe even forever, even at the cost of the irreversible destruction of a unique location, and it will go through a billion from the very tight state budget,” says the Hrdlořezská zvonička association.
Quietly and without a budget
According to him, the building is being prepared “quietly” and it is not clear how it will be financed and how much it will actually cost. According to the opponents of the project, the costs exceeded two billion crowns even before the dramatic increase in prices in recent months. In addition, the Railway Administration confirmed, at the request of the Freedom of Information Act, that it does not even have any budget. At the same time, she should have already spent “tens of millions from taxes” on project preparation.
They also add their own comparisons. “This solution has a similar logic as if, in the current economic recession, a Czech family planned to build a family house, paid planners and architects, and sought the issuance of a building permit. All this without not only having a construction budget drawn up, but also having no money for the construction and at the same time not knowing how to get it. And on top of that, she wouldn’t have an access road to the intended building and didn’t know what this new house would actually be for them.”
The railway administration is fighting back
“We do not agree with the claim that the Railway Administration prepared the construction in silence. All proceedings are conducted completely transparently, openly and in accordance with applicable laws, decrees and regulations. In addition to public hearings, we also continuously responded to citizens’ questions and project documentation with an offer of project consultations,” SŽ spokeswoman Nela Eberl Friebová responded to PrahaIN.cz’s inquiry.
Dealing with citizens
According to her, the railway administration is behind the project. “The documentation for zoning management for this building was processed in accordance with the valid principles of territorial development, the zoning plan and in accordance with the metropolitan plan being prepared. When processing the documentation, the conditions of the binding opinion of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process were respected. Territorial proceedings are conducted by the City Hall of the Capital City of Prague and are conducted in a completely transparent manner,” she specified in her reply to the editors.
No corruption
She also dismissed speculation about a possible obscure background to the project. “We strongly object to unjustified pointing out possible corrupt practices. The Railway Administration declares the implementation of effective compliance with the program of compliance with ethical and moral rules by the organization and its employees,” repeats through the mouth of its spokesperson.