Regarding Charles Bridge, where long term reconstruction is currently under process, we decided to take away the snow from the bridge immediately after it has been scraped so that its melting does not complicate repairs. Snow will be transported to the banks called Na Františku, said Tomáš Mrázek, a spokesman for Technická správa komunikací Praha (“Technical Administration of Roads and Pavements of the Capital City of Prague hereinafter abbreviated to TSK”). Special techniques and allocated workers for manual cleaning have been assigned to the cleaning of the Charles Bridge, added Tomáš Mrázek.

Enough material for treating roads

At the beginning of the winter season TSK has in its stores 8500 tonnes of road salt and 380 tonnes of calcium chloride. The capacity of stores is full and if needed TSK is prepared to buy additional spreading. TSK has assigned in its budget 288 million crowns to winter maintenance this year. TSK is responsible for 2308 kilometres of the 3815 kilometres of roads and pavements throughout the territory of the metropolis. Compared to the previous winter the amount of maintained road and pavements has slightly increased. Other administrators are responsible for the remaining part. Besides roads, we are responsible for the maintenance of pavements and steps. However, this concerns only roughly five percent out of the total amount. Responsibility for maintenance is still left to the owners or administrators of adjacent buildings, stated T. Mrázek. Roads in the metropolis have been divided into three basic categories according to importance. As regards the most important traffic routes assigned to category I, TSK is obliged to remove any obstacles within four hours of the machinery leaving the depot, and main traffic roads marked Ia within two hours. Local roads assigned to the II and III degree of priority are maintained after the treatment of superior roads.

Gritting vehicles and snow ploughs

Pražské služby, Ipodec – čisté město (clean town) and Martin Javůrek – Eko-Patrol have been the main contracting partners. TSK has available 69 gritting vehicles for the maintenance of roads of the first priority and 55 machines for roads of the second and third priority. Additional two gritting vehicles are available for the needs of Integrovaný záchranný systém (Integrated Rescue System) and Dopravní podnik (Transportation Utilities); these will be used in places where buses may have trouble or where ambulances could fail to pass through. In addition, TSK has two snow ploughs in case of snow drifts. In case an emergency situation occurs TSK has an agreement with large building companies on the provision of heavy machinery. In total, an additional 19 machines have been ensured for such cases, disclosed T. Mrázek.

Weather-stations will air current information

Warning system stations serve as an invaluable assistant in winter maintenance. At present, TSK owns twenty one of these, six out of them equipped with the facility for automated treatment of roads by means of a de-frosting spray. These have been installed at the most critical of places such as bridges or exits from tunnels.

From the warning stations TSK acquires data on air and road temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction. Based on the values read, the system is able to advise ahead of time whether there will be ice on the roads.

Again, for the winter season, TSK prepared a special internet application; Winter Maintenance at www.tsk-praha.cz. There users can find out whether their street is assigned to the winter maintenance system. We would like to increase the awareness of motorists regarding road maintenance in the metropolis in the winter period, remarked T. Mrázek.

The user will type the name of the required street into the field marked “to find”. Then a map with the selected street and its close vicinity will be displayed. If you left click on the road concerned, detailed information of the contracting company and the type of road grit used will be displayed, and you may also find the degree of priority assigned to the road.