The project for the repair of the footbridge in Kroměříž will be developed by VUT Brno

Kroměříž - The project for the repair of the pedestrian bridge over the Morava River in Kroměříž, which has been closed for half a year, will be prepared by the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Brno University of Technology (VUT). This was decided by the city councilors. The processing of the project will cost 1.3 million crowns. The money will come from the budget of the services department and will not increase the city's expenses. The deadline for delivering the documentation necessary for obtaining the building permit is September 30. According to the contract, the city should receive the complete project by the end of November, said Jan Vondrášek, spokesman for the Kroměříž city hall, today to ČTK.

"We are striving to have the bridge repaired as soon as possible," stated Mayor Jaroslav Němec (independent). According to him, the bridge will first be secured statically with external cables. According to the contract, experts from VUT will then assess whether, and under what conditions, it may be possible to reopen the bridge to pedestrians. "We would like to complete this before winter," the mayor added. The second phase of the work, the surface restoration of the bridge and the support of the bridge, could, according to experts, be postponed until spring.

The bridge has been closed since December 15 last year due to an inspection ordered by the mayor after a bridge built in a similar manner collapsed in Prague-Troja. The diagnostics of the bridge has been entrusted to experts from the Institute of Concrete and Masonry Structures at the Faculty of Civil Engineering at VUT in Brno. They concluded that part of the supporting cables of the bridge is damaged by corrosion and therefore it is necessary to repair the bridge. Due to the closure of the bridge, pedestrians now have to use the Karl Rajnoch Bridge, which is located about 500 meters away.

According to Ladislav Klusáček, who led the team of VUT experts, the decisive damage to the supporting cables is caused by corrosion on one side of the bridge, resulting from poor quality during construction. Some cables are also damaged on the other side of the bridge. However, according to the conclusions of the VUT team, the bridge can be repaired. It is not in a critical state like a similar bridge in Nymburk, which is awaiting demolition.

The bridge in Kroměříž was built in 1984. It is 76 meters long, with a span of 63 meters.