The construction of flood prevention measures in Brno cannot be accelerated much according to Vaňková

Brno – The pace of construction of flood protection measures in Brno is influenced by project preparation, obtaining building permits, property settlement, and funding. It cannot be sped up too much, said Mayor Markéta Vaňková (ODS) today to ČTK. Just a few days ago, Brno faced a once-in-a-century flow that, according to the Morava River Basin Authority, the city is not protected against. Serious damage ultimately did not occur. According to the mayor, the building of measures against major flooding remains one of the city’s most important strategic projects. "That hasn’t changed,” she added.

An area of about ten square kilometers, home to 24,000 people, is not sufficiently protected against flooding. The city is preparing measures on the main rivers, but their completion will still take years. "These are extensive linear infrastructure projects in the built-up part of the city. Their preparation, as well as their actual realization, has many pitfalls: project preparation, obtaining building permits, legal property preparation, and financing. The realization of such costly constructions cannot be financed without grant support; we are talking about projects worth billions for priority phases," Vaňková stated.

Regarding grant titles, it is necessary to wait for the relevant call. "That is to say, communicate with the provider and coordinate the preparation with them to align the needs for content and financing. Often, from a layman's perspective, it seems that project preparation takes a long time, but if we look at the first section in Poříčí, the permits were obtained surprisingly quickly. The architectural competition was successfully completed, the subsequent refinement of the design, the documentation preparation, and obtaining a total of 11 separate permits were accomplished. Property settlement was also managed very quickly. The preparation of similar constructions generally takes much longer," she added.

The drainage master plan for the city of Brno was created in 2009. The Morava River Basin Authority subsequently developed an implementation study in 2015, and a year later, a memorandum was established between the Authority and Brno. Currently, only the Poříčí section is under construction. Work began in January 2022 and was supposed to be completed last autumn. However, it has been delayed, and this spring, the completion date was pushed back for the third time, now to April 2025.

Construction companies cleared the site last week to allow for the full release of water from the Brno Reservoir. It is not yet clear whether the increased flow has jeopardized the construction or the completion date. "Damage estimates can only be made after the water recedes and the debris is cleared. We expect that to be in about 14 days, when hopefully the standard flow of the Svratka River will be 20 cubic meters per second, and work in the riverbed can be resumed. Whether this will delay the completion of the construction is not possible to say at this moment," said Roman Burián, head of the municipal press office.

Part of the master plan also included a concept for flood protection based on nature-based principles, often associated with the modification of the broader surroundings of watercourses. The concept divided the measures into 28 phases. "Five priority sections have been chosen for further project preparation and subsequent implementation. In terms of the number of protected residents and protected property, these are the Poříčí, Trnitá, Zbrojovka, Sokolova, and Jih sections. It cannot be completely ruled out that we might return to this arrangement, but for now, implementations and preparations are continuing according to plan," Vaňková noted. The section Trnitá is expected to start construction in 2026, Zbrojovka in 2028. For the Sokolova and Jih sections, the design phase is currently being prepared.