Prague will not start with the renovation of Malostranské náměstí, the councilors canceled the tender
Planned appearance of the upper part of Malostranské náměstí after revitalization. Visualization: IPR Prague
The serving Prague councilors have canceled the tender in which they selected the company Gardenline almost a year ago for the long-planned improvements to Malostranské náměstí. According to the resolution approved by the council today, the project has undergone significant changes since the selection of the supplier. Because of this, the duration of the works specified in the tender was extended from 12 months to more than double, and therefore the competition had to be cancelled. The councilors did not decide on the launch of a new tender today.
The works are to be based on the architectural competition that the city evaluated in 2014, in which the project of architects Martin Hájek, Václav Hájek and Petr Horský was successful. After the modifications, the parking lot should disappear from the upper part of the square, the sidewalks should be widened, and on the contrary, the lanes for cars should be used. The city expects to start the works after the selection of the contractor, which the councilors decided on December 13 last year, this spring. The costs should have been 84.4 million crowns.
However, according to the document approved today, the municipality never signed the contract with the contractor company Gardenline, because there were a number of requests for modifications to the project, especially in terms of historic preservation. These include, for example, the need to carry out “extensive rescue archaeological research, at the highest professional level corresponding to the importance of the site, which was not adequately considered in the project documentation”.
due to the change in the traffic regime, according to the document, it will also be necessary to adjust the intersection in the lower part of the square, and the municipal preservationists also demand the modification of the appearance of the furniture and public lighting poles along the tram line to a historic form.
“Furthermore, based on the requirements of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, it will be necessary to change the solution to the parking spaces at Sněmovní Street and to modify the solution to the communication in front of the entrance to the underground garages of the Chamber of Deputies,” the document states.
In 2016, the city canceled the parking lot in the lower part of the square and tried to organize cultural events there, but without much public interest. The city also reconstructed the tram tracks on the square, around which it placed new paving, which will be placed on the entire square after the complete repair. The Radecký Praha Association strives to return the equestrian statue of Austro-Hungarian Marshal Radecký, which stood there between 1858 and 1919, to the square.
Prague has started or is preparing modifications to other public spaces. Work is now being completed in the lower part of Wenceslas Square, where in the area between Můstek and the tram tracks, workers have completely presented and expanded the area for pedestrians, planted trees or built new benches and fountains. Modifications to the upper part are also planned, for which it is not clear when they will start. The transformation of Karlova náměstí, Náměstí Jiřího z Poděbrady and Vítězné náměstí has also been in preparation for a long time.