The new railway bridge can be seen as an opportunity to create a memorable structure with a strong visual identity (a landmark) that positively represents high-speed rail and harmonizes with its surroundings in both the future urban and landscape contexts.
The proposed railway bridge is located northeast of the town of Velké Meziříčí. It spans the Oslava River valley, important ecological corridors, and industrial facilities on the outskirts of the Velké Meziříčí municipal area. The bridge’s architectural design responds to the broader historical context of the area north of the town. It creates visual continuity with older railway viaducts and becomes a landmark that complements the existing ensemble of bridge structures in the area—two stone viaducts and the Vysočina highway bridge. While it references the highway bridge through the use of contemporary materials and a modern design language, it relates to the historic viaducts through its natural appearance and sensitive integration into the landscape. Structurally, the bridge is designed as a statically simple and straightforward reinforced concrete structure, with an emphasis on long service life and minimal maintenance requirements.
To ensure optimal interaction between the track and the supporting structure and to reduce the number of expansion joints, the bridge is divided into structural and expansion units with a maximum length of 63 m from a fixed point. This solution allows for the installation of continuous, jointless track on the bridge without interruption or expansion joints. The design respects the character of the Oslava Valley and the existing ecological corridors on the river terraces. On the eastern side of the valley, the bridge crosses over the local “U Cihelny” biocenter; at the abutment, a vegetation strip is proposed to help visually and acoustically screen the structure. The project also includes the extension of pedestrian trails toward the Fajtův kopec area and their integration into an educational trail. This trail would connect all the bridges in the valley and offer the opportunity to observe the diverse landscape mosaic of forests, meadows, and shrublands.
Client: Railway Administration
Location: Velké Meziříčí
Visualization: 2DRstudio
Authors: Radek Lampa, Libor Hrdoušek, Tomáš Kroužil, Jan Blažek, Volodymyr Voievodin, Maxim Petricov, Peter Lastovecký
