The repair of the Barrandov Bridge will take longer, but it still remains that it will be completed this year

Prague - The repair of the Barrandov Bridge in Prague will take longer than expected by the road workers. The reason is the worse condition of the consoles, i.e. the beams at the edge of the bridge. The exact date for the completion of the repairs has not yet been determined, but it is still true that the reconstruction will finish this year. This was stated to journalists today by Deputy Mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates) and Deputy Director of the Technical Administration of Communications (TSK) Josef Richter. Originally, the repairs were supposed to be completed by the end of the summer holidays.

In mid-May, TSK announced that this deadline would not be met. Now, according to Hřib and Richter, the completion date for the repairs is being pushed further back from the May expectations. The reason is that finding a solution to the console problem was more complicated than the road workers had anticipated.

The Barrandov Bridge consists of two bridges: the southern one, which cars travel from Smíchov to Braník, and which has already been repaired, and the northern one, which is used in the opposite direction. The bridge, built in 1983, has not yet been completely repaired. More than 140,000 cars cross it daily, making it the busiest road in Prague.

"About a month ago, we came before you and announced that new serious circumstances had arisen that could not be foreseen and which led to the need to create a new technical solution for repairing the Barrandov Bridge. It seems that the bridge can still actually be repaired this year, although there will be delays,” Hřib said today.

In the spring, road workers discovered that the console was bending during the concrete pouring at the edge of the bridge and that the original concrete was in very poor condition. "We were looking for a technical solution on how to save the console and proceed. Therefore, we will support the console so that it does not bend," Richter said.

Workers must significantly reinforce it and drill anchors into the original concrete and also tie the reinforcement. "The existing concrete reinforcement is very reinforced, and to drill one anchor, we might have to drill ten times; it is very demanding. You drill and go back because the anchors are up to 400 millimeters long, and repeating the drills is time-consuming. Overall, there are 90,000 drillings," Richter said.

When exactly the bridge repair will be completed, Hřib and Richter did not say. According to them, it will depend, among other things, on the weather or further investigations into the condition of the bridge. They now know, according to Hřib, that the northern part is just as dilapidated as the now repaired southern part of the bridge.

Traffic measures remain unchanged. This means that drivers use three instead of four traffic lanes on the bridge in both directions. The on-ramp from Strakonická has been closed for smoothness, and drivers in this direction must use the turnaround ramp at Lihovar.