Hradec Králové opened a foot and bike bridge across the Elbe for 175 million crowns

Hradec Králové – The city of Hradec Králové today opened a footbridge for pedestrians and cyclists across the Elbe. The footbridge connects the city center with the Aldis area. The construction of the 103-meter-long and 5.7-meter-wide footbridge cost 175 million crowns. This is the largest completed investment in the city in recent years. The current largest investment in the city is the construction of a football stadium for 650 million crowns excluding tax.

Hradec expects the footbridge, the construction of which began in September 2021, to revive the Aldis zone and Smetanovo nábřeží. The area features, for example, the same-named congress center, the regional headquarters of ČSOB, and the congress hotel Aldis, which opened last year. The footbridge will also provide a safe link between the city center and Šimkovy sady. The city hall received a European grant of 102.7 million crowns for the construction.

"The bridge should bring another natural connection between the banks of the Elbe and help develop the Aldis area as well as the side leading to Škroupova Street," said the mayor Pavlína Springerová (Hradec Democratic Club) to ČTK. She admitted that the price for the footbridge was high. "However, the city managed to secure a European grant. This was money that could not be used in any other way," she stated.

The construction of the footbridge, built by the company SMP CZ, has been in preparation since 2003. Initially, the city hall estimated the footbridge's cost to be under 40 million crowns before the architectural competition in 2014. Compared to the original estimate and other footbridges and bridges, the Hradec construction is several times more expensive. Some council members, for example from the Změna and Zelení group, criticized the project in the past for its high cost.

According to the city of Hradec, the high price is due to the unusual design and technology. The footbridge, designed by a team led by architect Libor Kábrt, consists of supporting cables, a steel ribbed structure, and 39 pieces of slender segments of the thin deck, made from a special high-strength concrete. "The construction is on the edge of engineering and is something that no one has built in our country so far. There is no footbridge of this type in the Czech Republic,” the city hall previously stated.

For example, Pardubice opened a footbridge for pedestrians and cyclists across the Elbe at the end of 2020 for 40.8 million crowns. The town of Náchod built a road bridge over the Metuje for 33 million crowns in 2020, and the Hradec Králové region opened a bridge over the Orlice in Hradec Králové-Svinare in 2019 for 80 million. Last year, the region built three new bridges on the road to Pec pod Sněžkou for 187 million crowns.

Former mayor and current city council member Alexandr Hranálek (ODS) reminded that the design of the footbridge emerged from an architectural competition. "It is quite clear that proposals originating from such competitions are exceptional. Both in terms of design, technology, and also in price. Rejecting this project, including the grant, would likely irreversibly eliminate this connection between the city center and the Aldis area,” Hranálek stated.

The city hall selected the contractor for the footbridge only in the fourth tender. No one applied in the first competition in 2019. The city hall canceled the next two tenders after a single interested party offered prices significantly exceeding 100 million crowns. At that time, city hall considered abandoning the project and looking for a cheaper alternative. Ultimately, it announced a fourth tender and selected SMP CZ from the French group Vinci from three bidders.

The construction of the footbridge was delayed by several circumstances in the past. Environmental protectors raised objections to the project. The original plan involved cutting down an oak tree on the embankment, against which environmentalists successfully protested. Delays and disputes also accompanied the architectural competition. Ornithologists raised objections about the design, as the proposed footbridge could interfere with the flight paths of birds, especially swans. The project was modified due to the comments from ecologists.

The city also committed in the contract with ČSOB, under a penalty of 15 million crowns, to complete the footbridge connecting its forecourt to the ČSOB building by April 2020, which did not happen. However, the city hall averted the threat of a fine when it negotiated with the bank to extend the deadline by over three years. The start of construction was then delayed until the completion of the regional ČSOB headquarters.