Why Does the Subway Line Not Reach Prokop and the Clinical Center? – Casings Under Railway Platforms Only Partially Built, Landslide Problematic Too, Says Stanko Kantar

The preparatory works for the construction of the subway depot in Makisko Polje will begin on November 22, and, as the director of the PUE Beogradski metro i voz, Stanko Kantar, says for eKapija, these works entail the backfilling from the projected cote and the construction of rainwater collectors. After the preparatory works are done, infrastructural facilities of the depot and access routes are to be built, whereas the beginning of the construction of the depot facility is planned to start in a year, that is, in November 2022.

A hall for inspection maintenance with exterior washing of trains, train repair and servicing workshops and overhead contact lines, garage halls and management buildings are to be built within the depot facilities.

The construction of the station and the route of the first line are planned for the second half of 2023.

Why can’t the first subway line reach Prokop?

The settlements along the Ibar Main Road, following the complaints of the “Po meri metro” citizens’ association, are covered by the subway route, but the Prokop Railway Station and the Clinical Center of Serbia are still outside the subway line system.

– The part of the complaints that pertains to the passing of the first subway line through the Belgrade Center Railway Station in Prokop has not been adopted. According to the data from the project documentation related to the construction of the Belgrade Center-Prokop station, the route cannot go through the area of the Clinical Center or through Dedinjsko Brdo either, as envisaged in the project – Kantar says.

According to him, in an earlier period, the tunnel/casing for the subway station 26 meters long, of the total of 90 meters, was built at the Belgrade Center Railway Station partially and is set beneath the main slab of the station, at a 90-degree angle.

– The project of that tunnel/casing did not define how the subway station at Prokop would be connected with the subway stations to the south (The Fairground) and the north (The Clinical Center). The technical documentation is incomplete and has not solved many important questions when it comes to having a subway route in that area – he points out.

The position of the designed and partially built casing for the subway, our interviewee says, dictates for the subway line to go down the bridge structure above the highway, bypass the Emergency building and enter the hill near the foundations of the Gynecology and Obstetrics Clinic and then pass not too deep beneath the Laza Lazarevic Clinic and farther close to the new building of the Clinical Center with an undefined possibility of building a station within the Clinical Center.

On the other side, Kantar adds, toward the south, the cote of the casing dictates that the line would intersect with the diaphragm with the deeply set anchors, built as a protection from the sliding of Dedinjsko Brdo toward Prokop.

– Due to this, the passing of the subway line through the Clinical Center and Prokop in the way that it was envisaged is not possible from several aspects – vibration, noise, geological and infrastructural limitations and based on the changes in the area as a consequence of the newly built or planned healthcare facilities. A deviation of the first subway line through Prokop would also leave out the two biggest traffic hubs in Belgrade, Mostar and Autokomanda – says Kantar.



The Clinical Center and Prokop should be connected by the third subway line, which, as Kantar expects, should solve all the engineering problems of the construction of the subway in that part, but also connect Autokomanda, Vozdovac and Banjica.

– In the meantime, the Belgrade Center Railway Station is connected with parts of the city, namely, New Belgrade (west), the Vuk Monument (north) and Rakovica (south), within the BG Voz system – Kantar says and adds that the subway is designed as a system which will also integrate other forms of public transport, primarily BG Voz.

Therefore, several “hubs” where the BG Subway and BG Voz systems will intersect are planned. One of the planned intersection points is The Fairground.

– Through the development of the technical documentation, the ways of realizing that kind of a connection will be defined. The budget of Serbia plans funds for the development of the city railway system in Belgrade, including considerable investments for the purpose of increasing the capacities – new railways, tracks and stands – our interviewee points out.

Will the increase in the price of building materials increase the price of the construction of the subway?

– A change in the price of construction materials, labor force, economic and other factors can influence the price of the construction of the subway, as well as any other construction project. To what extent this will influence the Belgrade subway will only become apparent only after the detailed analyses that are being done now and that are yet to be done – Kantar says.

Contractor’s experience

The signing of the agreement on the construction of the route of the first line and its stations, according to our interviewee, is planned for July 2022, and the contractor should be the company Powerchina.

– Since this is the biggest and most important project in Serbia so far, the contractor, Powerchina, has adequate references for the realization of projects of that size worldwide. They’ve built over 45 subway projects, of a total length of 411 km, with 227 stations. Powerchina has done subway lines in Shenzhen, Wuhan, Lanzhou, Xi’an, Chengdu and others – Kantar says.

JKP Beogradski metro i voz Beograd

Power Construction Corporation of China Limited Ogranak Beograd

Udruženje građana Po meri metro

Stanko Kantar

General Regulation Plan of Rail Systems in Belgrade

subway

subway construction

Cerak

Žarkovo

Vidikovac

Petlovo brdo

Clinical Center of Serbia

Prokop railway station

Belgrade Center railway station

line 1

line 2

BG Subway

Shenzhen subway line

Wuhan subway line

Lanzhou subway line

Xian subway line

Chengdu subway line