Nymburk has closed the footbridge of the same construction as the Troja footbridge

Nymburk - The city of Nymburk closed the footbridge over the Elbe this afternoon, which has the same design and is by the same project engineer as the collapsed bridge in Troja, Prague. According to initial police findings, the footbridge likely has a systemic design flaw that leads to corrosion of the prestressing cables, said Nymburk Mayor Pavel Fojtík (Change for Nymburk) to ČTK. "Based on this, we were advised to terminate the operation of the footbridge until its safety is proven," Fojtík told ČTK.

Prague police stated in response to ČTK's inquiry that they had not issued any such official statement. "It is too early for us to draw such a conclusion; we need a clear opinion from an expert," said Tomáš Hulan, spokesman for the Prague police, to ČTK. He added that such information would likely fall under the jurisdiction of the city hall of the capital, specifically the technical administration of communications as the administrator of the Troja footbridge. "In my opinion, the design of the footbridge was fine," said project engineer Jiří Stráský to ČTK today. He does not intend to comment further on the topic at this time.

The capital city's city hall stated today in response to ČTK's inquiry that police officers and experts will examine the remains of the Troja footbridge for at least another one to two months. "We do not have any further information on the investigation results. It would be premature to draw any conclusions until its completion," said Vít Hofman, spokesman for the Prague city hall.

"We were invited on Monday to look at the Troja footbridge, where work related to examining the remains is already at an advanced stage. The forensic expert in charge there informed us that the police will issue instructions to the Ministry of Transport expressing their belief that this is a systemic flaw," Václav Hvízdal, director of the specialized company Pontex, which examined the footbridge in Nymburk about a year and a half ago, told ČTK today. According to him, it would then be up to the ministry how to handle such information.

"Essentially, the issue is that the structure cannot be properly injected, which is causing the cables to rust," Hvízdal said. Citing information from a police representative, Pontex sent a letter to Nymburk recommending the closure of the footbridge over the Elbe. "That letter was also sent in copy to the relevant investigator," added the director.

Only a few meters from the closed footbridge in Nymburk is a road bridge, but the city cannot allow people onto this bridge for safety reasons. "The police will be monitoring this; people will have to cross the Elbe via the railway bridge, over the lock, or use public transport," Fojtík said. Railings have been installed on the sidewalks at both ends of the bridge, meaning that people would have to enter the roadway for vehicles when accessing the bridge.

Last week, representatives of Pontex met with the city management to jointly review the results of the latest inspection. The city subsequently announced that it would wait for preliminary results of the investigation into the cause of the collapse of the Troja footbridge before conducting another physical inspection of the footbridge.

"At this moment, it is not possible to guarantee the safety of the Nymburk footbridge for pedestrians over the Elbe. Until safety is guaranteed, the footbridge will be taken out of service," Fojtík added.

The footbridge in Troja collapsed into the Vltava on Saturday, December 2. The incident, in which two people were seriously injured and two were lightly injured, is being investigated by the police. The City of Prague admits that the footbridge between Troja and Císařský Island was in poor condition. However, it asserts that the condition was not critical and there were no indications that the bridge from 1984 would collapse.