The repair of the town hall facade in Jablonec will extend into next year

Jablonec nad Nisou - The repair of the southern and eastern sides of the facade of the historic town hall in Jablonec nad Nisou will extend into next year. The work is expected to be completed by the end of July. It was originally supposed to be finished this October, but the construction has been delayed due to complications in repairing the western facade and the tower, as well as a shortage of workers in construction. The extension of the completion date was approved today by the city representatives of Jablonec. At the same time, they imposed a penalty of 1500 CZK for each day of delay on the contractor, although according to the contract, it could have been up to 30,000 CZK per day.

"The contract for the facade reconstruction has been prepared by the town hall since 2014 and was divided into three phases," said Deputy Mayor Lukáš Pleticha (ČSSD) at the council meeting. The work was supposed to start a year later, but no one applied for the tender, and the town hall had to announce it again. The repair thus began only last year on the western facade and the tower, and the contract was awarded to the Liberec-based company SYBAN. It turned out that the tower has damaged ceramic masonry that needs to be replaced and reinforced. The repair was thus completed only this year, when the company also obtained a contract for repairs on the southern and western facades.

The owner of SYBAN, Jan Syrovátko, apologized to the councilors today for the delays and requested an extension of the deadline as well as a reduction of the penalties from 30,000 CZK to 1500 CZK per day. "It would be a huge financial blow that I am not sure I could withstand. I am interested in completing the contract and if possible also applying for the contract on the northern side of the facade," said Syrovátko. He had 15 people prepared for the contract, but when the work on the tower took longer, more were needed. "The large number of contracts in construction, however, reflected in the shortage of people, and I could not find them," admitted the owner of the construction company.

The Jablonec town hall is a significant building of Czechoslovak interwar architecture. It was built from 1931 to 1933 according to the design of architect Karel Winter. The city is gradually restoring the historically protected building, having invested over 35 million CZK in it over the past six years. The city is gradually having the windows repaired and is also working on restoring the interiors of the town hall. Among other things, the lobby has been fitted with lanterns this year, which were previously missing because there was not enough money for their production during the construction of the building. According to the original plans, they were made by the specialized company Houska & Douda. Two salons have also returned to their original form. This year, the city invested 14 million CZK in the restoration of the town hall.