Due to structural issues, the archive in Příbram is facing a large relocation

Prague - In October, approximately half of the documents stored at the State District Archive in Příbram will be removed. The reason is the disrupted statics of the building, which was opened in February 1997. The repair of the building will cost at least 15 million crowns. Daniel Doležal, director of the State Regional Archive in Prague, said this to ČTK today.

Problems with the technical condition of the building began to manifest this year. The archive management commissioned a structural survey due to these issues. "The conclusion of the assessment indicates that the foundation slab is not capable of long-term bearing the current load caused by the gradual storing of archival materials, even though the building has not yet reached its planned capacity," Doležal pointed out.

According to the archive director, the problems were most likely caused by a mistake in the project. "We are currently exploring the possibilities of identifying specific individuals responsible. But it is premature at this moment," Doležal told ČTK.

Although there is no immediate danger of collapse, the archive has decided to vacate the second floor of the building that houses the depository. Throughout October, approximately two and a half kilometers of documents will be transferred to storage near Příbram. As a result, the archive had to temporarily close the reading room and limit the fulfillment of research requests. The archive should begin to function again, albeit in a limited capacity, at the beginning of November.

It is still uncertain how much the repair of the building will cost. Just the remediation of the Příbram archive would amount to about 15 million crowns. "If we were to take advantage of this situation to build a new depository on the adjacent plot, we might be looking at around fifty to fifty-five million," Doležal said to ČTK.