One Vltava Bridge a Year: TSK Publishes Its Repair Order to 2033

Prague's roads authority, TSK, wants to rebuild one bridge over the Vltava every year, and has now said in which order. Its director, Filip Hájek, presented the schedule to Zdopravy.cz, which published it on 21 October ahead of a podcast interview. According to the outlet, it is the first time TSK has set out its intentions for the individual river bridges as a single, systematic plan.

The repair of the city's bridges has been talked about for years. What is new is a table with years in it.

The order

TSK's chart, titled "Bridges over the Vltava: the follow-on renewal programme", runs from 2027 to 2033 and separates preparatory work — relocating utilities, putting up a temporary footbridge — from the construction itself. Barrandovský most is marked as done. The rest, by year of construction:

• Libeňský most (SO205) — 2027 and 2028.
• Štefánikův most — 2028, together with the tram line in Revoluční.
• Mánesův most — preparation in 2028, construction in 2029.
• Hlávkův most — preparation in 2027, construction in 2029 and 2030.
• Čechův most — 2030.
• Most Legií — preparation in 2030, construction in 2031.
• Palackého most — preparation in 2031, construction in 2032.
• Libeňský most (V009) — preparation in 2029 and 2030, construction from 2031 to 2033.

A note at the foot of the chart says the dates are expected ones, subject to preparation, tenders and the coordination of traffic restrictions.

The Libeň entries belong to the Libeňské soumostí, the group of bridges near Palmovka whose renewal Zdopravy.cz calls an endless story: it ended up before the competition authority, and all that stands there now are the piers of a mothballed structure. This month TSK advertised a tender to finish the part-built remainder. The chart splits Libeň into two jobs, but the article does not say which of them that tender is.

Why Štefánik goes first

Hájek's reasoning for the opening move is coordination rather than condition. The tram line in Revoluční is due to be rebuilt in 2028; the street will be reconstructed at the same time and the track itself moved.

"Ideally we want to repair one bridge per season, so that we don't put an enormous load on traffic and don't have two bridges dug up next to each other. We know we're starting with Štefánik bridge. […] It's a natural moment, and we'll use it to repair the bridge as well."

— Filip Hájek, director general of TSK, speaking to Zdopravy.cz

The chart shows that "one per season" is the aim rather than the rule. Štefánik and the first Libeň structure overlap in 2028; Mánes and Hlávka in 2029; Hlávka and Čech in 2030; and the second Libeň bridge runs for three years from 2031 alongside Legií and Palacký. Zdopravy.cz itself notes that some years will have two bridges in progress.

Funded, mostly

Hájek told the outlet that the schedule is both a TSK vision and a list of jobs for which money has already been allocated — with the exception of Palackého most, where he said there is still time in hand. He did not expect the current elections and coalition talks at City Hall to change the plan fundamentally.

"These projects are at different stages of preparation, complexity and permitting. I'm not worried that we wouldn't be able to convince the political leadership that this needs doing. Nobody has touched the bridges over the Vltava for a long time and they really need it. We have to improve their properties, but also deal with water getting into the structures. The longer it leaks into them, the worse it will be."

— Filip Hájek

He described the plan as a message inside TSK as much as outside it: once one bridge is finished, the next has to start, "otherwise it will all collapse like a house of cards".

Hlávka is the hard one

The technically most difficult job, according to Hájek, is not Libeň but Hlávkův most — the busiest of the bridges, and the one that has to be coordinated with the planned Vltava Philharmonic. The philharmonic project is running and has applied for its building permit, he said, and so is the design of the bridge repair. If the philharmonic were ever abandoned, TSK would have to adapt.

That gives the two-year construction slot on the chart a dependency outside TSK's control. Of the eight entries, Hlávka is the one whose date depends on a building that does not yet have its permit.