The repair of Prague's Charles Bridge should start in July

Prague - The long-planned renovation of Charles Bridge is expected to begin in the second half of July after the celebrations of the 650th anniversary of its foundation stone being laid. The city council has selected the company that will carry out the work. The only remaining company in the competition is SMP CZ with a price of approximately 222.4 million crowns. This is about 65 million more than the original budget estimated, said councilor Milan Richter to journalists.
The pavement will be reconstructed, including the stone railing. Charles Bridge will mainly acquire new waterproof insulation to prevent the masonry from cracking during water infiltration. There should also be better ventilation. New distributions are planned, and gas lighting should appear there. The work will take almost three years and will be carried out while the bridge is still in use.
“It will be technically complex, especially regarding the protection of the statues on the bridge,” Richter noted. If something were to happen, the company is insured for such cases, he added.
Three candidates applied for the exclusive contract. Immediately after the opening of the envelopes, the offer from Skanska CZ with Skanska DS was excluded for lacking all requirements. Upon closer examination, the companies JHP together with Strabag and Strabag AG were also excluded. SMP CZ's price offer was in the middle between the companies that had been excluded, Richter mentioned.
According to him, the offer from SMP CZ was evaluated five times by the selection committee and twice by a group of experts. They deemed the price realistic, the councilor emphasized. The original calculations made by an external company were erroneous, according to him, and the magistrate will draw consequences from that.
Despite this, the city council discussed the idea of canceling the competition and announcing a new one, according to Richter. However, in the end, they unanimously declared the winner. “If we hadn't made a selection, it would mean another year's delay,” the councilor said. The price could then have been even higher due to rising construction costs, he added.
The renovation of the monument has already been delayed by about a year, as it was supposed to start last July. Everything was then postponed due to changes in the procurement law. Now, they will celebrate July 9, 1357, when the construction of the stone bridge began during the reign of Emperor Charles IV.
The work will only be carried out on certain sections of the bridge so that pedestrian passage is maintained. The construction site will be located on the river so that material transport does not burden traffic on the bridge. It is possible that people walking on the bridge will be able to see how the historical monument is being renovated. There is consideration of windows in the fencing. It could be a tourist attraction.
Repairs to the masonry will take much longer, possibly even ten years. There will be another competition for this work. Each stone block will be examined by specialists, who will determine whether it will be preserved, cleaned, or replaced entirely. Interestingly, the original sandstone is in much better condition than the stone used in the bridge's repair in the 1970s.
The magistrate has long sought suitable stone deposits for the exchange of blocks. It was not easy, as the material should match the stone used during the Gothic period. However, it must also meet various bridge criteria to endure. Experts eventually selected two locations. One is located near Kamenné Žehrovic near Kladno, and the other near Březín in Plzeň.
The magistrate once organized a public collection for the upcoming renovation of the bridge. Approximately eight million crowns were collected. The money has already been used to stabilize some of the pillars that were damaged by the catastrophic flood in August 2002.