Statik denied responsibility for the collapse of the roof of the hall in Česká Třebová

Ústí nad Orlicí - The structural engineer who designed the trusses for the roof of the sports hall in Česká Třebová today denied any wrongdoing in court in Ústí nad Orlicí. The roof of the new hall collapsed on January 14 last year. Another man is also facing charges in the trial that began today. He was supposed to supervise the structural part of the building. The roof fell during a floorball match, resulting in total damages of 20.6 million crowns. No one was injured.

The indictment accuses the man of general endangerment through negligence. According to the prosecutor, the truss construction was underdimensioned and inadequate, which caused the roof to collapse.

Structural engineer Pavel Škorpil, who was hired by the company Cecolegno to calculate the truss construction, stated that the bottom chord of the truss was interrupted and divided into two parts during construction. However, this interruption did not appear in his calculations and drawings, he said. He rejected any errors in the calculations. A truss, or tension beam, is the main supporting beam of the roof structure.

Witness Lenka Bicková, who previously worked at Cecolegno, where she created construction drawings based on Škorpil's sketches, testified today that Škorpil was aware of the division of the chord into two parts and agreed to it. The reason was reported to be the savings on materials and transportation costs. The truss elements were manufactured in Germany, with final production taking place in a company in Bílině.

The hall was built for the Pardubice Region by the company Profistav Litomyšl, which hired subcontractors for the roof. According to Bicková, the wooden elements were underdimensioned so that the company could succeed in the competition with a low price; later, after further modifications, the proposed solution was approved by the supervisory structural engineer Jiří Khol, who is also facing charges.

The Pardubice Region had the original building constructed for nearly 58 million crowns. The damages were covered by insurance from the general contractor and the company Cecolegno, which went bankrupt following the roof collapse. The regional government paid an additional 5.9 million as a difference due to the use of a different type of truss compared to the original budget.