The prosecutor charged two people due to the collapse of the Troja bridge

Prague - On Wednesday, the prosecutor indicted two people due to the collapse of the Troja footbridge in Prague. They face charges of causing general danger through negligence. The spokesperson for the Prague Municipal Public Prosecutor's Office, Aleš Cimbala, announced this today. According to earlier information, the case involves the bridge's designer Jiří Stráský and the former head of the Bridge Department of the Technical Communications Administration, Antonín Semecký. The men do not agree with the charges and unsuccessfully filed a complaint against its initiation last March.

During the collapse of the bridge, which connected Troja with the Císařský Island, four people were injured at the end of 2017, two of them seriously.

"Due to errors in the project and construction of the bridge, the steel cables were compromised by corrosion, and with an incorrect assessment of the condition of the bridge and poorly executed repairs that did not increase its load-bearing capacity, the collapse occurred on December 2, 2017," stated Cimbala. The case will be handled by the District Court for Prague 7.

One of the accused, according to Cimbala, did not fully or partially consider the effects of wind and temperature loading in the calculations when preparing the project, and did not include the procedure for injecting the channels of the prestressing cables in the technical report. "At the same time, the project chose a placement of the load-bearing and prestressing cables that did not allow for the wrapping of the injection mortar over their entire surface where they touched each other, which means insufficient protection of the load-bearing system," he added. According to Cimbala, the ventilation system also failed to fulfill its function.

Additionally, the accused was charged with not properly exercising the author's supervision as a designer, which led to low-quality execution of work and insufficient protection of the footbridge’s load-bearing structure against corrosion. "Although the technical standard regulating bridges made of prestressed concrete stipulates that permanent inspection and repair of injection must be carried out for these structures, the accused person stated in the technical report that the structure does not require maintenance," Cimbala added.

The second accused, according to Cimbala, was aware of the poor, even critical, condition of the bridge, as he had records of 38 inspections and 15 assessments and tests conducted from 1995 to 2017 that highlighted the unsatisfactory condition of the bridge. The accused did not ensure that de-icing salt was not used during the maintenance of the bridge, although it was prohibited by the construction documentation. He also did not arrange for an assessment of the load-bearing capacity, even though regulations prescribe this for bridges in poor to critical condition. "The accused person did not initiate necessary and appropriate repairs or maintenance of the bridge, nor did he take measures to limit pedestrian access," the prosecutor added.

The construction of a new footbridge for pedestrians and cyclists was commenced by the city hall last November. It is expected to be completed by the end of this October at a cost of 128 million crowns. Currently, a ferry is providing transport in the area.

Prague has long-term problems with the condition of its bridges. Several bridges over the Vltava River are also in poor condition, including, for example, the Libeňský bridge, Hlávkův bridge, Legií bridge, and Palackého bridge. The city, through the Technical Communications Administration, has started diagnosing their condition, as well as that of the cable-stayed bridge on the South Connection.