The Jezera landfill on the edge of Prague’s Uhříněvsi is a place that has long caused controversy. Hazardous waste lies underground here, even so, in recent years the local council has been discussing whether or not the district should plan construction on the site.
Although the leadership of Prague 22, headed by Mayor Tomáš Kaněra (ANO), was initially in favor of the plan, it eventually turned around. And this after the long-prepared draft of the Metropolitan Plan revealed the planned change of part of the landfill to a buildable area. According to Kaněra, the plan lacks guarantees that the construction would be safe. Because of this, Prague 22 also sent an objection to the plan in November.
But that’s not the only thing that bothers the locals. In the proposal of the Metropolitan Plan, which Prague published last fall, a dashed line with no fill marking the territorial reserve for the high-speed rail tunnel passes directly through the landfill.
“There is up to a thirty-meter layer of everything possible underground. We are arguing here about whether gymnasium playgrounds can be laid on top and hundred-ton Czech TGV cars whizzing through the landfill? That doesn’t make sense,” Mayor Kaněra said after the last council meeting of Prague 22 at the end of last year.
It is based, for example, on the fact that, according to the System for the Registration of Contaminated Sites, the existing contamination “would mean the emergence of an unacceptable health risk in the event of a change in the functional use of the site or the affected surroundings to a more sensitive one compared to the current use”. In the past, waste from industry was exported to the landfill, including sludge from paint production or ash from the Malešice power plant.
Photo: Tomáš Klézl, Seznam Správy
The Jezera landfill in Uhřínevsi.
“According to my information, the Railway Administration has this branch as a reserve and currently does not plan to use it, however, we want to behave responsibly and not wave our hands over it. If the Railway Administration decides to use the reserve in the future, we must be sure that any option that is being considered as another possible corridor leading through Uhříněves will not have a negative impact on the quality of life of local residents,” Kaněra told Seznam Zprávám now.
He included the note about the high-speed line in the objections that Prague 22 sent to the municipality. The council should vote on these in May this year, said Deputy Mayor for Territorial Development Petr Hlaváček (STAN).
Photo: MČ Prague 22
Place drawn in the Metropolitan Plan.
It is a tunnel under a landfill, reassures the Railway Administration
When asked by Seznam Zpráv, the Railway Administration stated that, despite the designation in the Metropolitan Plan, it is currently counting on a territorial reserve not for a high-speed, but for a regular railway line. Its planning is based on a study of the feasibility of the Prague railway junction, which was supposed to take into account future demands for rail transport in the vicinity of the capital.
“One of the outputs is, among other things, a proposal to strengthen the capacity of the lines heading from South Bohemia and from Benešov. Since it is not possible to sufficiently expand the corridor in the footprint of the existing line, a new parallel line for passenger long-distance transport is being considered in a certain section. It is this that uses the mentioned reserve in the spatial plan, and is thus part of the current proposal of the Metropolitan Plan,” said the spokesperson of the Railway Administration, Dušan Gavenda.
“Regarding the location of the landfill itself, it is possible to state that the route in this area is assumed to be in a tunnel excavated using the TBM method with an overburden approximately 23 to 34 meters high, so the route is not considered directly through the landfill. The standard part of the follow-up preparation will be an engineering geological and hydrogeological survey, supplemented here with a contamination survey. Of course, the preparation will also have to include a proposal for possible compensatory measures,” added the spokesperson.
Deputy Hlaváček added that the corridor is the intention of the state and neither Prague nor its districts “can do anything about it”. “This is a public building of nationwide importance. But it goes without saying that whatever takes place in that location must be properly and thoroughly examined and assessed according to the law. However, this does not happen before it is drawn up in the spatial plan, but only afterwards,” he said.
