A temporary construction is being prepared from the damaged bridge in Brno
Traffic on the bridge was reduced by the Railway Administration on Thursday evening after discovering the previous day that how it is most damaged. According to railway workers, the reason is the work on anti-flood measures around Svratka, specifically the placement of special sheet pile walls in the river bed.
For about twenty workers, the lightning-quick work began on Thursday evening – to remove tracks, sleepers, gravel. Excavate everything so that they can lay a temporary bridge here.
According to the editor of the portal iDNES.cz, who monitored the situation on the spot, a part of the rails was removed on Friday morning around ten o’clock, and the workers had not yet considered a temporary bridge. According to the original information, it was supposed to be placed within 12 o’clock, in the end it will probably be later.
“The temporary structure is now ready for installation, the work will eventually take place in the main afternoon hours. In general, however, it is possible to say that the work is proceeding according to plan and our maximum capacity is on site so that we can resume double-track traffic in the direction of Břeclav as soon as possible,” railway spokesman Jan Nevola told Zprávy before 11 a.m.
The limitation does not accommodate more serious complications
Traffic on the bridge is expected to resume at 4 a.m. Saturday. Until then, start counting on the fact that the trains may be late, or they may not go where they originally thought.
In the same way, you have to follow the departure boards even for those who will only leave Brno today. Part of the trains do not go from the main station, but from the lower one, which served as a substitute during the lockout a few years ago.
Main station (blue mark), Lower station (green mark), damaged bridge (red mark)
Maps provided freytag & berndt. © freytag & berndt, SHOCartcontributors OpenStreetMap. The company is also creating a book series A wandering camera with tips for trips all over the Czech Republic, which is an ideal gift for admirers of the beauty of our homeland.
A second bus service is now in place between the two stations. “We have staff at both the main and lower stations that passengers can contact. Here and there someone will ask, but today is more like a festive traffic, so we are not experiencing any major complications,” said the spokesperson. Czech Railways Emanuel Vittek.
According to him, even those who are heading to Brno are not surprised that they will perform somewhere where they did not expect it. The conductor on the train already informs about the emergency.
“We haven’t had any problems either. About a quarter of the calls to our helpline are related to this emergency, however, our employees often explain that their train is not affected, so they are pleased afterwards,” added Květoslav Havlík, spokesman for Kordis, which coordinates public transport in the South Moravian Region.
The situation is such that all long-distance trains, i.e. express trains and international trains from the direction of Prague via Brno to Břeclav and on to Vienna or Bratislava or in the opposite direction, are currently skipping the main railway station. Likewise, regional trains of line S3, i.e. in the direction of Tišnov, Hustopeče and Židlochovice.
Provisional for up to three years
However, the temporary bridge will not be in place for the next few weeks or months. According to Nevola, it should serve for two to three years. “However, everything will be specified according to the results of the diagnostics of the bridge, which will be carried out by the Railway Administration after the completion of the current works,” added the spokeswoman.
According to him, the reconstruction of the bridge will require the preparation of project documentation and other subsequent steps, such as the processing of a building permit or the announcement of a tender for a contractor.
“A temporary solution can also be the so-called closing of the pillars, so that we can use as much as possible. However, without a diagnosis of the bridge, it is difficult to estimate at the moment how we will proceed. Our effort is to shorten the exclusion of the track for trains in the direction of Jihlava to the shortest possible time,” added Nevola.