<Barrandovský most> is one of the busiest sections of the road network in <Czech Republic>

Prague – A profile of the Barrandov Bridge, which was ceremonially opened on November 3, 1988:

- The Barrandov Bridge, which is still the third youngest road bridge over the Vltava in Prague, could be partially used by motorists since September 1983, but it was not fully ceremonially opened until November 3, 1988. From the beginning, it has been among the main communications in Prague, with about 140,000 cars passing over it daily, making it one of the busiest sections of the road network in the Czech Republic.

- The bridge, which began construction in the spring of 1978 and cost nearly half a billion of the then-crowns, is one of the two skewed crossings of the Vltava in Prague – and the only one intended for road traffic. Its angle of intersection with the river is 53 degrees; the Holešovice Railway Bridge crosses the river under Bulovka at a 45-degree angle.

- The Barrandov Bridge is 352 meters long and 40 meters wide, with a roadway height of 15 meters above the surface of the Vltava. Vehicles pass over it in eight lanes, often getting stuck in traffic jams due to heavy automobile traffic.

- Currently, the bridge is undergoing extensive reconstruction spread over several years. In 2021, the lower part of the bridge was repaired, and last year work began on the upper section. This year’s repairs included work on the ramp from the street K Barrandovu as well as the repair of the left side of the southern bridge in the direction from Smíchov to Braník. The final stage of repairs is expected to be completed by 2025 according to plans. The total cost for the entire duration of the work will be 594.5 million crowns.

- The current geographical name was given to the structure in January 1990; it was originally named after the second communist president, Antonín Zápotocký. The structure was then part of the so-called 3rd nationwide youth construction – the Southern Road, which was thus completed and diverted traffic from Brno and Plzeň away from the center of Prague via the so-called southern connection.

- "Its architectural design and integration into the landscape dignify represent the level of our engineering and bridge construction of the eighties,” wrote the Czechoslovak Press Agency when the bridge was opened in 1988, attended by government and party leaders of the time. The bridge was built for over ten years and like many other public buildings of that period, it was adorned with artworks, in this case, concrete sculptures by artist Josef Klimeš.

- On the right bank stands a work called Balance, which, however, received the nickname "the conqueror worm" from people, while two concrete basins on the left are known to the public as the hippopotamus bath or elephant feeder. However, not only official culture found its place on the bridge; extensive concrete areas became a popular spot for graffiti artists after 1989. Although the city tried to combat them and often had very elaborate works painted over, in July 2001, part of the bridge was allocated for legal creation.

- Efforts to bridge the Vltava in the places where the Barrandov Bridge stands are more than 200 years old. Not far upstream, between Modřany and Chuchle, there was a pontoon bridge in 1756 during the siege of Prague by Prussian King Frederick II. The idea of building a bridge was alive even during the First Republic, where consideration was given to two bridges at different heights. After World War II, only a single bridge was considered, and in 1976 the option for a skewed crossing was chosen.

- The Barrandov Bridge holds an irreplaceable place in the Prague transportation system; at the turn of the century, more than 100,000 cars crossed it daily. After the opening of the southwestern section of the Prague Ring Road in 2010, most trucks disappeared from it – as it formed a connection for other parts of Prague to the D5 highway to Plzeň – and the traffic intensity dropped to 80,000 vehicles, but it then began to rise again to the current more than 140,000 cars daily.

- Traffic complications on the bridge affect all of Prague, whether due to accidents or repairs. The bridge underwent repairs between 2006 and 2007, but this was not a total reconstruction like the current one. Even in 2013, only localized damage to the waterproofing was mentioned, but a 2015 report stated that "by 2020 at the latest, the entire road structure, including waterproofing, must be exchanged, the expansion joints must be rehabilitated, and the drainage system must be repaired."

- Since the complete finishing of the Barrandov Bridge, only two other road crossings over the Vltava have been built in Prague. In September 2010, the more than two-kilometer long Radotín Bridge on the Prague ring road was opened, and four years later, the road and tram Troja Bridge, which connects to the Blanka tunnel complex, was added. In 2020, a new Troja footbridge was built downstream, replacing a structure that collapsed in December 2017, and this year, the Štvanická footbridge connecting Holešovice and Karlín was completed. Last year, construction began on the Dvorecký Bridge, which will connect Prague 4 and 5. The bridge, which will serve public transport, pedestrians, and cyclists, and will also allow emergency services to cross, is expected to be completed in the fall of 2025.