The construction works lasted just under ten months. Credit: DPP Facebook.
Prague, 3 Nov (BD) – Yesterday morning, shortly after 9am, the Prague Transport Company (DPP) reopened the reconstructed Jiřího z Poděbrad metro station into trial operation.
During construction works lasting just under ten months, the second deepest Prague metro station has seen the replacement of its escalators, reconstruction of the escalator tunnel and vestibule, and the complete revitalization of the platform. In addition to new escalators, lighting, suspended ceilings, and stone tiles on the platform, the station also now has a new navigation system and LTE and 5G signal. As a result, the Prague metro now has complete coverage of both networks.
In the coming months, the construction of elevators will continue at the station, and DPP expects them to come into operation at the turn of spring and summer 2024. The construction contractors are the Strabag association and AŽD Praha. The cost of revitalising the station, including the replacement of the escalators, amounts to approximately CZK 800 million, while the total construction costs are CZK 1.29 billion. The project is co-financed from the Prague Operational Program for growth, to the amount of almost CZK 85 million.
Construction work on the project started on 1 September 2021, in two parallel stages. The first included excavation work of a mining pit, shafts for both pairs of elevators, a transfer corridor to connect both elevators, and a shaft for an escape staircase.
The second stage of construction work, initially taking place in the non-public part of the station and through partial closures of the platform and the vestibule, included a complete revitalization of the station. As part of this, DPP and the contractors completely replaced all of the original air conditioning, cable distribution, lighting, and eliminated leaks in the technical facilities of the station.
Since the station was closed to passengers on 14 January this year, the revitalization work was extended to the escalator tunnel, all public parts of the vestibule and the platform. In these parts of the station, all leaks were eliminated, several kilometres of cable lines were completely replaced, the original Soviet station escalators were removed, including the engine room, and new, energy-saving ones were installed, as well as the refurbishment of the escalators leading from the vestibule to the surface.
Non-original fluorescent lamps throughout the station have been replaced by energy-saving LED lighting, which is again built into the ceilings, as was the case when the station opened in 1980. The stone tiles on the platform are completely new, and the damaged paving tiles in the vestibule were repaired.
“More than 40 years after its opening, the Jiřího z Poděbrad station has seen a complete revitalization,” said Zdeněk Hřib, 1st Deputy Mayor of Prague for Transport and Chairman of the DPP Supervisory Board. “It is the first reconstructed station on the second section of route A. We will gradually continue with the reconstruction of the others; at the end of next year the Flora metro station will follow. In less than eight months, Jiřího z Poděbrady will also be the first wheelchair-accessible station in Prague 3.”
