The reconstruction of the Old Town weir will be completed in June, nine months earlier

Prague - The reconstruction of the monument-protected Old Town Weir in the center of Prague will be completed nine months earlier than planned. The handover of the construction is expected to take place after tests in June. This was stated in a press release by the spokesperson of the Vltava River Basin, Hugo Roldán. The reconstruction, which costs 112 million crowns, started in 2021 and was originally supposed to last until next spring.

The reconstruction was financed by the Vltava River Basin from its own resources and the project has been in preparation since 2016. "The overall reconstruction returned the weir to its original form of the so-called Prague type weir," said General Director Petr Kubala.

The contractor for the work is the company Metrostav. Project manager Daniel Boďa stated that the experiences gained by workers over time accelerated the reconstruction of the historic structure. "While on the first section we were learning, with each subsequent one we became smarter, and gradually we managed to improve the processes enough to significantly speed up the construction progress," he said.

The Old Town Weir has been located on the river at least since the 13th century. Its traditional purpose, according to the company, was to raise water for powering mills and for water supply usage. This included eight Old Town mills and the Old Town water tower, and on the Little Quarter bank, it included St. George's mill (later called the Sovovy mills) and three mills on Čertovka.

The reconstruction also restored the wooden grid of the weir made of oak beams, the length of which exceeded two kilometers. The wood comes from 160-year-old trees from the game reserve in the village of Kněžičky in the Nymburk region.