The development of the new Brněnský most bridge was predetermined by the construction of the modern arch for the old Brněnský most bridge in 1927. The old bridge had a great number of traffic complications during the First Republic, when the extent and importance of road transport were not as significant as in the post-war years. This was also pointed out by the press at the time. The road profile, descending and ascending, in combination with a sharp bend made it a dangerous place. At the end of April 1953, road builders expressed their opinion on the critical condition of the bridge in a technical report, and started preparing a new construction.
Such a major project naturally influenced the surrounding area, too. Nearby gardens, meadows and pastures had to give way, along with houses, for example on Ztracená, Boční and Křižíkova Streets. The construction of the new bridge affected the areas of Dřevěné mlýny and Brtnické předměstí suburb as well as the inner city. Based on the documentation available, a total of 17 plots were purchased for this purpose. Administrative bodies offered the people affected by the construction the chance to relocate to 24 alternative homes. In addition to the bridge, the project also envisaged the relocation of the state road in a length of over one kilometre. The state road did not pass directly through any streets, and therefore allowed travel at 80 kilometres an hour.
In 1956, the Rudé právonewspaper described some other parameters of the bridge. It informed that the new bridge was over two hundred metres long, the total width between the guardrails was 14.5 metres, of which 10 metres were a cobbled road, and the rest pavement. The construction of the bottom structure of the bridge commenced in 1953, and was completed in the summer of 1954. The construction required a large amount of material: more than two thousand cubic metres of concrete for the foundations, 1,886 cubic metres of concrete for abutments and wing walls, 620 cubic metres of reinforced concrete for the pillars. The bottom structure required 59 tonnes of steel, 1,260 cubic metres of prefabricated concrete for the skeleton construction, 265 cubic metres of reinforced concrete for the pavement corbels, and 248 tonnes of steel for the skeleton. The skeleton beams were made by the Montostav national enterprise in Litice nad Orlicí, and transferred to Jihlava by rail. Prefabricated components were transferred from freight cars to special undercarriages to be transported to the construction site. The bridge was completed in 1956. Its final length was one hundred and ninety-eight metres, the height was nearly nineteen metres.
The person in charge of the project was the civil engineer Oldřich Hurych (1907 - 1990) from Znojmo, a native of Telč. The site manager and builder of the bridge was Mr Štolba. Hurych was a pioneer in the field of prestressed concrete in bridge building. In addition to the new Brněnský most bridge, Hurych also designed the Znojemský most bridge in Jihlava, which was completed in 1952.
The new Brněnský most bridge has become a prominent landmark of Jihlava. For aesthetic reasons, it was not built horizontally, but rising uphill. Allegedly, it also fascinated visitors from the Soviet Union – engineers Fišer, Konovalov and Volkov. As reported by the Rudé právo newspaper, the building’s “size, the courage of the technical idea and the high quality of the work made a strong impression on them.” Engineer Konovalov allegedly asked how many people were working on the construction site, and could not believe that it was only thirty workers.
In 1998, the bridge underwent its first renovation, and the second one followed in 2018. The main investor was the Vysočina Region, while the City of Jihlava contributed six million Czech crowns to the renovation. All the supporting pillars of the bridge were refurbished, the drainage system was improved, the hollow parts of the prestressed beams cleaned and the prestressed concrete strands were inspected. Today, the bridge is a significant connecting line in the direction of Brno, the Demlova, Kalvárie, Březinova and Hruškové Dvory housing estates in Jihlava and the Helenín quarter. It is also crucial for public transport, with lines 2, 12, C and B passing over it.
FV
