The Petržalka Hill has started to disapear. (source: Courtesy of Cresco Real Estate)
The so-called Petržalka Hill - a pile of debris from earlier buildings that were pulled down to make space for the present-day Petržalka housing estate - has started to disappear.
AFR Group, which won a tender for the work, began clearing the site in early February. The emptied land will be used in the extension of the Slnečnice development by the Cresco Real Estate developer. It is expected at least a quarter of the hill will have been removed by December.
The Slnečnice development (source: Courtesy of Cresco Real Estate)
The narrow hill in the southern part of Petržalka, known by locals as Dirt hill, is less than 500 metres long. It emerged in the 1970s when prefabricated housing estates were built in the local area. Over time it became a green hill covered at least partly with grass and trees and for several years was used as a track for off-road quad bikes. In winter it was also used for sledging in the otherwise flat Petržalka. Part of the hill was removed in 2017 and most of the material from it was used in the construction of the D4 and R7 Bratislava bypass near Jarovce, which is today part of Bratislava.
The hill consists of more than 300,000 tonnes of material, 96 percent of which is expected to be reused. The mound consists mostly of soil, bricks, concrete, metal sheets and other material.
Samples from the surrounding groundwater and air did not show the release of any hazardous substances from the hill, although there are small amounts of ethernite containing asbestos fibres in the hill, according to the developer, which also says there will be permanent geological and technical supervision during the works. Groundwater monitoring will also be carried out, air and soil samples are to be taken regularly and scrapings of the surrounding buildings are to be carried out.
The estate, planned for completion in 2030 and spread over more than 900,000 square metres, will have homes for 20,000 people.
