Prague decides: Landmark Výton Bridge to be repaired, ending decade-long debate

Prague’s historic Výton railway bridge will be repaired rather than replaced, Transport Minister Martin Kupka announced Tuesday, ending decade-long debate over its future.

The reconstruction will add a third track, a riverside stop, and extend the bridge’s service life by another century, balancing modernization with heritage preservation.

Kupka and Jiří Svoboda, director of the Railway Administration (SŽ), said an international competition will be held to design the reconstruction. Construction could begin at the end of 2029 and is expected to take around three years. During the repair, a temporary single-track structure will be installed on the existing pillars to maintain rail traffic.

Civic associations praised the announcement, emphasizing the importance of preserving Prague’s historic infrastructure.

The architects who had proposed replacing the bridge with a new structure, 2T Engineering, along with SUDOP Praha and TOP CON SERVIS, expressed disappointment at the ministry's decision.

“Prague is unique and valuable thanks to the layering of its architecture…The current approach to monument protection does not give the present a chance to show its skill and leave something behind,” they said in a statement, lamenting that their work would likely remain unused due to political decisions.

Plans for a new bridge had faced opposition from local governments, conservationists, and the UNESCO committee, who raised concerns about heritage and urban impact. Kupka noted that a Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) also recommended repair over replacement.

Svoboda said the reconstruction process will involve lifting the bridge on the bank for repair while maintaining temporary rail service onsite. Once the old structure is removed, the bridge’s pillars will be inspected and repaired as needed. An architectural competition to finalize the design is expected to be announced at the end of next year, with results due by late 2027.

Pavel Štorch, founder of the Nebourat.cz initiative to save the bridge, supported the decision but said the plan “reeks of great inefficiency.” Štorch told ČTK that the current SŽ plan would require manufacturing all three bridge sections for repair, whereas a previous draft study proposed replacing only one section at a time.

The Výton railway bridge, linking Vyšehrad and Smíchov, opened on Aug. 15, 1872, as a single-track structure and was later replaced by a double-track bridge around 1900. Its riveted design is a notable technical and cultural monument within Prague’s conservation area.

The bridge carries trains, pedestrians via footbridges, and includes a stone viaduct on the Vyšehrad side. Declared an immovable cultural monument in 2004, corrosion over the years had severely limited train traffic, sparking debate in Czechia and beyond over repair versus replacement.