The bridge on a regional road between Vřesová and Vintířov crosses the Chodovský potok stream and a local road in the locality of Stará Chodovská, which is a part of the town of Chodov in the Sokolov area. According to Vojtěch Vaněk, spokesperson of the Karlovy Vary Region road maintenance authority, the latest traffic count from 2025 showed that an average of 1,628 motor vehicles a day, including lorries and scheduled buses, pass through the section in both directions. The bridge provides a connection for residents of the surrounding villages and is also important for supplies and services in this part of the Sokolov area [1].
Reconstruction
The modernisation of the bridge is financed by the Karlovy Vary Region, and the contractor is the company VIAMONT Servis a. s. The original cost of the construction was approximately 19.7 million koruna including VAT; by how much the amount will rise is not yet clear. According to Vaněk, additional defects came to light during the work, because of which the sides of the girders and the joints between them will have to be remediated, the exposed reinforcement treated and the protective filling around the prestressing tendons supplemented. A structural recalculation also showed that, to fit the new bearings, the bearing sills on both abutments will have to be broken out and concreted again to a larger extent and their anchoring supplemented. The original documentation did not provide for this, so the contractor cannot meet the original completion deadline [1].
Jiří Šlachta, director of the regional road maintenance authority, said that the newly found deficiencies must be resolved before traffic is restored, even though the construction will be prolonged. Unless other unforeseen circumstances arise, the road maintainers want to reopen the bridge at the beginning of December [1].