A pane of glass has fallen again from the facade of the technical library in Prague

Prague - Today, one of the glass panels from the facade of the National Technical Library in Prague fell again. This was reported by the iDnes.cz website based on a statement from the library's spokesperson, Milan Šindelář. The falling panel did not injure anyone. In 2017, two tempered glass panels weighing 35 kilograms fell from the facade. Even then, the falling panels did not injure anyone. At the beginning of this year, the library sued the development company Sekyra Group due to the fallen panels. The company denies responsibility for the fall of the panels.

A glass panel was dislodged from the facade today around noon above one of the entrances to the library. For such cases, protective scaffolding and metal railings had already been installed at the entrances after the previous panel fall. "Another glass panel really fell; fortunately, no one was injured," the library spokesperson told the website. "I fully believe that this will expedite the court dispute with the contractor of the building, Sekyra Group," he added.

After the first fall of the glass panels in February 2017, the library unsuccessfully negotiated with Sekyra Group to remedy the defect in the outer cladding of the building, which was opened in 2009. The developer defends itself by stating that the library neglected maintenance and that the warranty period for the facade expired on December 31, 2013. "Mechanical damage or a manufacturing defect in the panel, which manifested during a sudden temperature change, rather than a systemic flaw, seems probable," stated Leoš Anderle, the executive director of Sekyra Group, earlier. In January, the company director claimed that the earlier panel fall was just a one-off event.

However, in January of this year, the library announced that a professional assessment attributed the fall to poor anchoring of the panels. According to the library, the Klokner Institute of the Czech Technical University in Prague stated in its assessment that the cause of the accident was extreme stress on the glass around the load-bearing point, caused by improper anchoring of the glass elements.