According to the Old Prague Club, the proposal for the railway bridge does not correspond to the importance of the place
The winning bridge design, view from the Smíchovská embankment. Visualization: SŽ
According to the representatives of the Club for Old Prague, the proposal for a new railway bridge in Prague under Vyšehrad is not successful for the significance and historical context of the place. In the committee that selected the proposal, they voted for another project. According to them, the original structure of the bridge should be preserved. The club stated this in a letter addressed to interested institutions, which is available to ČTK. The proposal for a new bridge between Výtoní and Smíchov has sparked discussions among experts and the public. According to the Club Za starou Praha, the way to get the best proposal would be an international architectural competition, not a competitive dialogue.
The preservation of the bridge from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was discussed for a long time in Prague, various proposals for solving the poor condition of the structure appeared. The competition was announced by the Railway Administration last May, the selection committee consisted of its representatives, the Prague municipality, preservationists, experts or members of the aforementioned club.
A fundamental condition for the new bridge solution was the expansion from two to three tracks. The committee selected a new building, according to the proposal of the 2T engineering company, only the lower part of the building with the pillars should be preserved.
According to the selected committee, the proposal best deals with the movement of trains, pedestrians and cyclists. Even some critics of the new proposal applaud the friendlier environment for cyclists against the current bridge. Part of the conditions of the competition was the preservation of the original heritage-protected structure. According to the result, it should be removed and used elsewhere.
The Old Prague Club reminded that the commission’s meeting was part of a two-round competitive dialogue, which was not a competition according to the conditions of the Czech Chambers of Architects.
“It was a dialogue to select a processor of additional documentation according to the principles and conditions of the contracting authority. The competitive dialogue was conducted in accordance with the law on awarding public contracts,” the club said.
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“We remain convinced that the priority must be to preserve the valuable heritage-protected bridge with the possibility of additional new independent structures,” the club said.
In the extreme case, when the original preservation of the iron riveted structure would not be objectively possible, according to its representatives, it is necessary to call for an international architectural competition for the new bridge, which is the best tool for obtaining a high-quality architectural design. Even in such a case, however, the Club would insist on the preservation of the preserved structures and their use in another place.
The initiative Save the Railway Bridge, which was created four years ago out of fear of the bridge being demolished, does not like the current proposal either. “The winning form of the bridge will strongly disrupt the panorama of Prague as we know it,” they said on Facebook. Theoretician and propagator of architecture Adam Gebrian rated the proposal on social networks as a bad joke.
The architect Josef Pleskot, who through his studies has several experiences with the construction of footbridges and bridges, stated when asked by ČTK that the winning design of the Výton bridge is, in his opinion, the product of a social, professional and therefore political disagreement.
Among the competing proposals were several works of architectural studies, which originally preserved the new and reconstructed existing bridge and supplemented it with a single-rail bridge with a footbridge for pedestrians and cyclists. The winning company 2T engineering was founded in 2010 and is dedicated to designing in the construction industry and supplying medical technology and interiors.