Viaduct to replace level crossing in woods near Nymburk, Czechia

In the woods in the Nymburk district, an eight-metre viaduct is planned to replace a railway level crossing. The crossing is on the line between Lysá nad Labem and Ústí nad Labem, next to the Dvorce stop, used by residents of the Dvorce part of Lysá nad Labem, which is home to about 200 people.

The line is an important freight artery, carrying mainly containers, tankers and cars. The stop is about 300 metres from the first house, and the road to the village runs along the edge of the forest. There are few passengers here; the train to Ústí nad Labem stops once every two hours.

How much the viaduct could cost

The Railway Administration says that, as part of modernising the line, it proposed replacing the level crossing with barriers on the forest road with a viaduct eight metres high, to be reached by a massive embankment. This is an investment of tens, and possibly hundreds, of millions of crowns. An exact calculation is not currently available, said the organisation’s spokesman David Kabele.

According to the visualisation, besides the viaduct itself and the access roads, small car parks will appear in the forest behind the stop on both sides of the tracks.

Why the underpass was rejected

According to the railway workers, the town of Lysá nad Labem demanded the viaduct. Mayor Karel Marek (of the movement “Lysá Unites Us”) said that the town wanted to keep the level crossing, but that was not possible, so it agreed to the viaduct as a fallback solution.

“We rejected the underpass because it would be in the middle of the forest, and from the point of view of pedestrian safety we do not consider it suitable. A pedestrian bridge, on the other hand, would only solve the movement of pedestrians and cyclists, but not the passage of forestry machinery,” the mayor explained. “That is why we supported the viaduct as the most suitable option, preserving the passability of the area for all current users,” he added.

Read also: 9 best cycling routes around Prague: from the Vltava embankments to Karlštejn Castle

Source: novinky.cz