The Hot Spring Colonnade will be repaired according to the compromise proposal

Karlovy Vary - The Karlovy Vary Thermal Spring Colonnade will be renovated according to a compromise proposal, while in operation, and at the same time, a new reserve outdoor reservoir for thermal spring water will be built. The proposal, approved today by the city council, came from a working group of experts. However, parts of the opposition claimed that the councilors were presented with only one proposal without sufficient information, as was stated at today's council meeting. In the end, however, the absolute majority of councilors voted for it.

"This variant is a compromise. It includes both the continuous operation of the Thermal Spring Colonnade without interruption and the minimization of risks that would arise from those remediation interventions. It also involves a part of relocating the accumulation reservoir," said hydrogeologist Tomáš Vylita to ČTK today.

The option to build a second, reserve reservoir arose from the demands of spa hoteliers. The thermal spring water, which is the foundation of spa treatment in Karlovy Vary, is currently drawn by 34 spa facilities. The director of the Imperial Hotel, Alexander Rebjonok, pointed out today that without the thermal spring water, the spa operations would not be able to provide their services.

According to working group member Václav Benedikt, the situation of the Thermal Spring Colonnade is critical. "The Thermal Spring Colonnade could collapse within one or two years and could damage the intake of the springs, which could then burst out elsewhere. It's a super emergency situation," Benedikt described the current condition of the technical background of the colonnade from the 1970s.

Today's decision of the council means, according to councilor and working group member Pavel Bouška (Karlovaráci), that the Administration of Natural Resources and Colonnades can begin to draw 21.3 million crowns, which are reserved in the budget for the first phase of the colonnade’s reconstruction.

"At this moment, we need to initiate urgent rescue work to prevent the ceiling from collapsing, while preparing the output for that bypass, for the side reservoir," Bouška stated. He expressed that he would like to see the completion of the repairs to the technologies of the Thermal Spring Colonnade by the end of the year or at the latest by the beginning of the next spa season.

According to the latest plan, the renovation of the underground of the Thermal Spring Colonnade is to be carried out in such a way that the technology will first be secured, then the damaged ceiling will be removed and replaced with a new one. Before completing the new floor, the reserve outdoor reservoir should again be placed underground. However, the repairs will also have to include the dismantling of the glazed dome above the original eruption of the thermal spring. Its beams are also in a state of emergency.