


In 2018, an experimental footbridge was made from UHPC. A footbridge crossing the Dřetovický brook in the Central Bohemian village of Vrapice near Kladno. For pedestrians, it connects the village with the right bank of the stream, where a cemetery is located. Architects Ondřej Císler and Petr Tej conceived the design of the footbridge as a "magical portal between the world of the living and the dead". The structure is composed of cast high-strength and frost-resistant UHPC Valucem with omnidirectionally dispersed steel microfibre reinforcement. The result looks very uniform and delicate. The footbridge weighs 3.5 tonnes and all the material used is 1.4 cubic metres of UHPC Valucem. The span of the footbridge is 10 metres and the width is 1.5 metres.
Opposite the footbridge is a statue called ‘Strážce’ by the sculptor Jan Hendrych. It is based on original Baroque models and complements the overall spatial composition of the bridge.
It is the first UHPC structure without conventional reinforcement to be in public use. The design of the footbridge was one of the six finalists in the 2019 Czech Architecture Award competition.
Client: Kladno City Hall
Implementation: KŠ Prefa, Klokner institue

The main bearing structure of the footbridge connecting Holešovice and Karlín is made of a continuous girder made of white UHPC Valucem. Thanks to this, the bridge has excellent mechanical properties, high durability and a unique architectural appearance that resembles white marble. The continuous girder connecting the Holešovice and Karlin banks is 300 m long and smoothly transitions into a side ramp turning onto the Štvanice island, 80 m long, thus forming a single unit without expansion joints.
The girder of the main bridge and the ramp is made of segments with longitudinal prestressing and an H-shaped cross-section. It consists of two web-plate side parapet girders with an intermediate bridge deck slab supported by transverse ribs. The through width in the main direction defined by the parapet is 4.0 m and the external dimensions of the segment are: height = 1.85 m and width = 5 m. At the point of the ramp, the through width defined by the railing is 3,0 m and the external dimensions of the segment are height = 1,85 m and width = 4 m. The thickness of the parapet forming the railing is 220 mm. The thickness of the bridge deck oscillates between 85 and 125 mm.
The outermost span on the Holešovice bank is designed as a lifting span due to the necessity to comply with the condition of placing the structure above the water level Q2002+1.0m in case of flood. In the event of a flood, the hydraulic system can lift the end of the footbridge by 3.2 m.
Client: Prague City Hall
Implementation: Skanska inc., KŠ Prefa





The sculpture ‘Na Horu’ by the Czech-Argentinian artist Federico Díaz refers, like the architecture of the buildings of Bořislavka, to the historical trade route that led through the place. In the past, roads and paths were built in gorges or mountain passes formed by glaciers or rain. It is no coincidence that the word "trail" has the same etymological origin as "to flow."
The "Na Horu" shapes refer to the shale and rock that has been sedimenting beneath the Bořislavka River for millions of years and which continue to shape the town's appearance today. But at the same time, upon closer examination, the sculpture shows a regular and wrinkled structure created by a machine. The work thus evokes the tension between nature and humanity. It is a reminder of the permanence that transcends us, as well as the human ability to adapt themselves and their environment.
The sculpture ‘Na Horu’ weighs 57 000 kilograms and is 7.5 metres high. The team of Studio Federico Díaz developed the So Concrete robotic fabrication technology specifically for its realization, and chose the high-strength concrete UHPC (Ultra High-Performance Concrete), provided by PREMIX servis ltd., which made it possible to create a subtle yet monumental work.
Client: KKCG company
Implementation: Frederico Díaz Studio

A bridge in the form of a stone laid across a river. The footbridge over the Lubina River in Příbor is a unique segmental construction, the first of its kind in the Czech Republic. The footbridge is designed as a simple girder with a span of 35 m, which is formed by connecting 5 double-chamber segments with a length of 7.2 m, a width of 2.5 m and a height of 0.8 m. From a structural point of view, the structure has a unique slenderness ratio of height to length of 1:44. The structural material used was UHPC Valucem with dispersed steel microfibre reinforcement.
The volume of the footbridge is lightened by twenty large polystyrene blocks. It is thus a hidden lattice structure consisting of a system of interacting longitudinal and transverse ribs. The segments of the footbridge are longitudinally connected by prestressing ropes routed in the longitudinal ribs of the inner grating. The prestressing is, unusually for segmental structures, provided by raised cables of parabolic course. A unique multiple protection system for the prestressing cables was designed on the footbridge. The footbridge is supported on abutments by pairs of 200 mm diameter steel cylindrical roller bearings.
The lower structure of the bridge is designed with standard reinforced concrete abutments with perpendicular wings. The structure is based on micropiles. The railing of the bridge consists of stainless-steel posts with solid oak handrail with integrated lighting.
Client: The city of Příbor
Implementation: STRABAG inc. (2018), KŠ Prefa

