The technical monument above the track in Plzeň will be replaced by an underground collector

Plzeň - The Faltus Bridge in the premises of Plzeň's Škodovka, a technical monument spanning the railway line to Domažlice, will be replaced by an underground collector more than 100 meters long at the Jižní předměstí station. The construction of the collector, costing 54 million crowns, was necessitated by the modernization of the Domažlice railway crossing. The Faltus Bridge, built in 1931 and the first welded bridge in Czechoslovakia, will be dismantled during the night of April 19 to 20, and the city of Plzeň will use it as a footbridge on the road to Karlovy Vary. The networks that run over it will be transferred into the collector, which took one year to construct. It is a complicated mining work, said Martin Melichařík from Swietelsky construction company to ČTK.

The work is part of the reconstruction of a very complex section of the Domažlice and Cheb railway lines and the adjacent main road for 1.1 billion crowns. The new line will significantly increase train transit through Plzeň and will later connect to a high-speed corridor to Domažlice, the state border, and Munich. The Railway Infrastructure Administration aims to complete the construction by October.

The collector consists of a tunnel and three shafts. It will carry industrial and utility water lines and electrical cables. "The geological profile changed with each blast during excavation. There are waterlogged and weathered rocks with minimal strength, but also resistant sandstones with quartz, which slowed down the excavation to as little as 30 centimeters per day. We even considered the use of explosives." said Melichařík. Builders had to conduct supplemental geological surveys and monitoring of the collector's route with a ground radar. To ensure the safe continuation of rail operations above the excavation, the project, shape, and type of reinforcement were modified.

The originally road-bound Faltus Bridge is expected to be relocated to the northern edge of Plzeň after renovation, where it will serve as a bridge for cyclists and pedestrians, spanning the I/20 road to Karlovy Vary and connecting the Kyjovský and Radčický forests with the forests between Košutka and Krkavec.

František Faltus, a significant expert in steel bridge construction and a pioneer of welding, worked at Škodovy závody in Plzeň from 1926, introducing bridge welding technology there. According to his design, the Tyrš Bridge over the Radbuz River was constructed in Plzeň, reportedly the first fully welded arch bridge in Europe, which drew admiration from experts in 1933 and was ranked among the five most daring structures in the world. Faltus founded a welding school in Czechoslovakia. His structures accelerated the restoration of road and rail transport in the country after 1945.