4 years ago, the Prague municipality launched a competition for a new form of urban furniture. The winner then was the world-famous design studio Olgoj Chorchoj. In recent months, there has been a mass replacement of mainly tram stops across the whole of Prague. A new shelter also appeared near the Bulovka hospital, where there is also a bus stop of the same name. However, the new shelter proclaimed something completely different. Locals then immediately used the opportunity to make sarcastic comments on the networks.
“Transport company hl. m Prague knows how to entertain. Despite the change, the name of the Bulovka tram stop at the current Nuselská Town Hall,” wrote Bohumil M. “And then Prague 8 will not have a new town hall! In addition, it’s a billion cheaper,” added Tomáš M. Adam Scheinherr, deputy mayor for transport, also appeared under the same post. “We’re sorry, the correction is underway. The fault of the installation company, so we are complaining to them. The inscription will be temporarily pasted over and subsequently replaced for correct. The crew is already on their way,” promised the deputy, and a few hours later he confirmed it with the attached photo.
Place Bulovka Nuselská town hall. The replacement of the shelters brought traffic chaos
Author: Blesk reader
So what happened? According to THMP, which is in charge of installing the shelters, there was a mistake on the part of the contractor. “In the past few days, glass panels with wrong names have actually appeared at some stops. The situation arose due to some manufacturing errors at the supplier and damage during glass transport. In order not to have to stop the construction, glass with the name of another stop was temporarily installed in some places, which was supposed to enable it to be put into operation quickly. In several cases, vandals removed the temporary plasteringwhich gave the impression that the wrong panel was in place,” said Tomáš Novotný, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of THMP.
Novotný also said that, unfortunately, it is not possible to uninstall the glass with the wrong stop name, because the wiring is hidden behind it. “We regret the situation, but we wanted the shelters to be used as soon as possible. It will be rectified during this and next week,” he promised.
Replacement of furniture according to THMP otherwise continues according to plan and by the end of the holidays, about half of the 690 stops had been replaced. Before that, the shelters were owned by JCDecaux, which ended up with the city in the middle of last year. The city management decided not to extend it or to look for another private operator and to purchase its own mobile operator. The exchange began late last year. The shape of the new stops was chosen by Prague in a design competition in 2018, in which the studio Olgoj Chorchoj was successful. At that time, the jury particularly appreciated the design purity of the dark gray aluminum furniture.
Place Bulovka Nuselská town hall. The replacement of the shelters brought traffic chaos
Author: Blesk reader