Road workers on the Barrandov Bridge in Prague have started the last phase of repairs today. Workers are milling the roadway. The work will last until the end of this summer holidays. No serious traffic complications have been recorded by the road workers so far, it is a normal Monday rush hour. The mayor Bohuslav Svoboda (ODS), his deputy Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates) and the deputy director of the Technical Administration of Communications (TSK) Josef Richter said today. The ramp from Strakonická Street is closed and the bridge is used in three instead of four lanes. TSK originally planned to spread the work over this year and next year, but eventually merged the two phases. The complete repair of the bridge will be completed by the end of August this year.
The Barrandov Bridge is made up of two bridges, a southern one, which carries cars in the direction from Smíchov to Braník, and a northern one, which carries cars in the opposite direction. The 1983 bridge has not yet been completely repaired. Every day, 140,000 cars cross it, making it the busiest road in Prague. Part of the bridge in the direction from Smíchov to Braník was repaired last year and the year before and the lower part in 2021.
“We actually started at the weekend, when we removed the barriers and, if possible, the guardrails. At the moment we are milling, that is, the road surface so that we can get to the concrete as quickly as possible, which we will need to further reinforce and strengthen,” said Richter.
As with the southern part of the junction, the road surface is also in a bad condition, among other things, as it is differently thick in different places – 27 centimetres in some places and 14 centimetres in others, according to Richter. On the southern bridge, the overlay is made up of three layers, namely protective insulation, cast asphalt and an abrasive base course. “We will only use two layers on the north bridge, the abrasive and the load bearing layer, omitting the insulation on the UHPC concrete because there is no need for it, the concrete is completely waterproof and the protection of the insulation as such. It will make the bridge lighter,” Richter said. The special UHPC concrete was used by TSK for the first time in the repair of the southern bridge.
Contrary to expectations, the prestressing cables holding the bridge are in worse condition. They will be replaced and replenished with new ones. “On the south bridge we saw the cable ducts and cables were crawling. Additional investigation confirmed that the north bridge also suffers from these ills, that is, leakage, rusting and weakening of the cross section of those cables,” Richter said.
After workers mill away the roadway, they’ll start tearing down the ledges, demolishing the bridge’s suspension. They will then finish milling the concrete over the structure and then begin reinforcing the structure and doing the leveling layer of UHPC concrete and the insulation itself. “Plus, of course, there will be cable replacement and cable replenishment work running. And they’ve already started the work to actually replace the bearings,” Richter said.
Traffic is not out of the ordinary for a Monday morning, according to road and city officials. According to TSK spokeswoman Barbara Liskova, traffic is heavier mainly on Jižní Spojka and Strakonická. Hřib said the situation is worst in the first days and that he expects it to gradually get back to normal and drivers will get used to it. He and Svoboda urged drivers to be considerate and not to drive over the bridge if they don’t have to.
Source: CTK
Photo: barrandak.cz
