Karlovy Vary Hot Spring Colonnade is recovering from a state of emergency

Karlovy Vary – Builders are gradually restoring the Karlovy Vary Hot Spring Colonnade from a state of emergency. However, with each uncovered structure, new problems arise. The city is thus faced with the question of whether to only remove the emergency state or repair the construction from the 1970s to its original form, said the Deputy Mayor of Karlovy Vary, Petr Bursík (ODS), to reporters today.

"Our working group has a mandate to resolve the emergency state of the object. Right now we are waiting for the tender process for the removal of the ceiling and the pouring of a new one to take place, the bowl will be returned and thus the emergency state will be secured. However, the new glass wall, the new floor, and how the bowl will look are not solutions to the emergency state, but its consequences," said Bursík.

The Hot Spring Hall is now filled with scaffolding, its glass walls have been removed, and the basement with the hot spring water collection technology is being secured. After uncovering the roof structure, it was also found that the apex of the Hot Spring Hall is compromised. The removal of the glass components, which are art pieces, would cost about 320,000 crowns, but manufacturing new ones would cost millions of crowns.

The removal of the emergency state of the colonnade, which has been partially closed for almost four years, is expected to cost approximately 36.7 million crowns. Completing the most urgent repairs would require an additional approximately 3.5 million, and new drilling and securing the Teplá River, which flows under the colonnade, would cost over 21 million.

The city is facing a decision on whether to temporarily repair the colonnade, from which healing hot spring water is distributed to most spa houses, and launch an architectural competition for a new colonnade, or to restore it to a condition where it could serve for another 15 to 30 years.

The world-famous jet of the Hot Spring, which is now produced in a limited form in front of the colonnade, could return to the Hot Spring Hall by summer, according to Bursík, but probably only in a temporary form.