The construction of the airport terminal in Pardubice continues without delay

Pardubice - The construction of a new airport terminal in Pardubice is proceeding without significant delays. The consortium of construction companies Strabag and Chládek & Tintěra previously expressed reservations about the hall construction project, but the operator of the civilian airport in Pardubice and the investor of the construction, East Bohemian Airport (EBA), rejected them. This issue has been resolved, said Pavel Svoboda, Chairman of the EBA Board, to ČTK.

"Our companies accepted the resolution of their comments and I expect that everything will conclude successfully with the timely completion of the project," stated Svoboda. The construction of the terminal, costing 256 million crowns, began at the beginning of June and is set to be completed in the autumn of next year.

The consortium recently questioned the construction of the hall. They claimed that for fire safety reasons, the steel structure of the hall should be replaced with a reinforced concrete one. However, according to the designer, the fire safety solution meets all Czech standards and was approved by the Fire Rescue Service in Pardubice.

According to Petr Požár, the construction supervisor for the investor, the actual construction of the hall is only about two weeks behind schedule. "Earthworks will begin on Tuesday. The terrain must be leveled after the previous archaeological survey," Požár told ČTK. The construction of the access road and the rerouting of engineering networks is proceeding according to schedule.

The cost of building the terminal is 256 million. According to the project budget, the price for the access road was about 50 million and for the actual check-in hall about 300 million crowns. The companies Strabag and Chládek & Tintěra won the tender with a price that was 27 percent lower.

The terminal was supposed to be built last year, but construction companies offered a price around 400 million crowns. The EBA decided to reduce the cost of construction and announce a new tender. For instance, there will be no equipped offices on the second floor. Savings were also made on the transformer station and air conditioning, which will be located outside instead of inside the building.

The shareholders of EBA, which are the city of Pardubice and the Pardubice region, have been looking for common ground for a long time, and it was uncertain whether they would agree on the need for the terminal construction. The airport has been experiencing a significant decline in passengers for the second year, as it lost regular flights to Russia last year, which had provided the highest income from Russian passengers.