BTS | PRAGUE METRO LINE D
TUNNEL DESIGN FOR PRAGUE METRO LINE D
The BTS evening meeting of June 2025 provided a briefing on Prague Metro Line D from Petr Makasek, Head of Tunnel Department, Mott MacDonald Czech Republic. The focus was on station design, especially for a mined large rock cavern. Here, Petr kindly provides T&T with a written report of his lecture.
The June 2025 evening BTS talk described the design to date of the stations for Prague Metro Line D with special focus on the complex Nové Dvory station. The talk was presented by Petr Makasek, Head of Tunnel Department, Mott MacDonald Czech Republic, who has more than 20 years of experience delivering underground works across Europe and beyond. At the time of the talk he was Project Manager/Responsible Engineer for Line D’s Nové Dvory station. The mined station at Nové Dvory is an unusually large
station cavern, incorporating: steeply rising escalator connections; a mid-station dome to enable two-way excavation of the station cavern; and, a pair of turnout tunnels supported by reinforced concrete (RC) pillars for future line branching. The lecture drew on preliminary and detailed design phases, outlining sequencing, modelling and verification approaches, and commenting on programme and procurement realities in Prague.
Below: Line D longitudinal section
1. INTRODUCTION Prague’s metro opened in 1974. Early sections were shallow and built mainly by cut and cover, reflecting the system’s original conception as a light underground tram. Later sections were constructed as Soviet-style metros — which are wider than London Underground, with an internal diameter of 5.1m for the running tunnels. These were typically constructed using the ‘Prague Ring Method’, which consists of full face excavation with cast
iron segmental linings installed by erector. The stations were usually three aisled mined stations constructed by a combination of cast iron linings together with RC pillars. In recent history, however, single cavern stations have
been preferred on the Prague Metro, the first of which opened in 2004 as part of the Red Line extension. Today the network comprises three lines (A - Green;
B - Yellow, and C– Red), totalling 65.4km and with 61 stations, carrying approximately one million passengers a day (2023: 338 million). The last metro line built — Line C — was opened in 2015 and since then the city has been waiting for the next line, Line D, to be built.
2. LINE D Line D, which will be the fourth line for Prague, will be 10.6km-long with 10 stations connecting the city centre to the southern suburbs and with intersections with lines Green and Red. It is the first line to be designed for fully-automated, driverless operation. For delivery, and bearing in mind the complex
permitting process, the client has partitioned the works into the sub sections: ● Section 1a - under construction, and includes two stations;
● Section 1b - in tendering, and has three stations including Nové Dvory which is the subject of the talk.
● Section 2; and, ● Section 3.
10 | April 2026
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