Modifications to the left bank of the Ohře River in Cheb may cost up to 200 million

Cheb - Adjustments to the long-neglected left bank of the Ohře River in Cheb are expected to cost as much as 200 million crowns. This is outlined in a study commissioned by the Cheb city council. The adjustments aim to transform the unused area into a sports and recreation complex featuring a athletics track, parks, and facilities for adrenaline sports, explained the study's author, architect Luděk Vystyd, to journalists today.
The tourist use of the left bank of the Ohře, as the entire project is collectively called, is intended to follow the revitalization of the right bank. The city transformed the right bank beyond recognition in 2006 when Cheb hosted a cross-border Landscape Exhibition organized jointly by Cheb and the German town of Marktredwitz. "A small Landscape Exhibition will take place in 2013 in nearby Tirschenreuth. We would also like to establish cooperation with them, which could provide the opportunity to secure funding from European funds," said Cheb's deputy mayor Michal Pospíšil today. Unlike the partnership with Marktredwitz, this relationship would be more of a loose collaboration, such as in the area of marketing, noted Pospíšil.
The main part of the complex on the left bank of the Ohře in Cheb is taken up by a neglected athletics stadium. According to the study, it is set to be transformed into a multipurpose sports field surrounded by an eight-lane track. The study also provides for the removal of the current embankments around the field, allowing the field and its surroundings to serve as a floodplain in the event of a major flood, which would protect lower-lying areas of the city, for example, the streets below the current Tesco hypermarket.
In other parts of the complex, the city plans to renovate and newly plant parks with paths and walkways, and at the site of a former quarry, from which material was extracted for the nearby Skalka dam, a ropes course is to be established. The study, however, also considers commercial use, such as the construction of family homes or a restaurant with facilities for tourists.
When and to what extent the city will begin to develop the area will depend on whether it manages to secure funding for the revitalization of the left bank of the Ohře. According to Vystyd, it is possible to divide the project into individual parts and gradually invest, for example, ten to twenty million crowns per year from the city’s own resources.
The revitalization of the left bank would restore the area under the Cheb Castle to the form it took at the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century when the Poohří became a natural recreational zone for the residents of Cheb and its surroundings.