A project that is unique in its scope
Everyone remembers the legendary O2 telephone booths, which were widely used to make calls in various locations throughout the Czech Republic. They were also a place where people could hide from the rain and pass the time by making calls. Now, in the electronic age, the vast majority of people have switched to using mobile phones, and so the glory days of telephone booths are over. Dismantling more than 3,500 telephone booths in two years—that was all the time we had. How to deal with such a huge number of telephone booths and how to quickly dismantle them from locations that are completely different each time? You have to be prepared for anything to handle such a large project. No two booths are the same, and the most difficult part is restoring the surface to its original condition from 10 years ago, and you don't have all the documentation for that because 99% of it is old. The booth may be on the wall of a building, on Sněžka, in an underpass, near a forest, in a pedestrian zone, or in the Prague Metro. And if you think you're really ready for anything, tomorrow a new challenge will come in another village or right on Wenceslas Square. A big thank you goes to our teams for handling everything," says Adam Klofáč, co-owner of MORIS design, which won the project to dismantle the telephone booths. After all, during this project, we demolished more than 3,000 cubic meters of concrete foundations and sowed an area of more than 2,000 m2. We know telephone booths very well, as we started branding them with the O2 logo 17 years ago. For us, this was already a big challenge, which we managed to complete 107%. We supplied not only the stickers, but also complete light boxes and other atypical elements.
Demanding preparation At first glance, it is clear that many questions had to be answered in preparation so that everything would run smoothly and in a coordinated manner within the agreed deadline. Some telephone booths are located directly on the street, some are in subway underpasses or shopping centers, and they have different surfaces on which they are built. Telephone booths stand on pavement, asphalt, or even ordinary grass. Uninstalling the booths means having about five different trades on site, from electricians and locksmiths to pavers and others. In addition, each booth is different. There are three basic types: freestanding cabins, semi-cabins, and boxes.
A service that saves time and money Our advantage was that we have many years of experience with facility management in our construction division, MORIS construction. Simply put, we provide service, management, and maintenance for stores of various companies with multiple branches that do not have the capacity or time to deal with service and malfunctions at their branches and do not want to hire experts in individual professions. We provide services for retail chains such as TETA drugstores, O2, SUPER ZOO, Traficon, and approximately 1,000 other retail outlets. Our team was thus able to offer extensive experience with various projects. O2 has gained a strong partner for the environmentally friendly disposal of cabins.
A system that works throughout Based on the analysis and its evaluation, we obtained data on how to start such a project correctly so that all procedures and, above all, deadlines were met. We created a precise schedule that included a list of various locations throughout the Czech Republic, including complete services for each location where a telephone booth was located.
A little adrenaline on site And what does such a service look like on site? It's a big adrenaline rush, because every location is really different. Simply put, the actual condition is assessed on site and individual tasks are started, which include the most important thing, which is disconnection from the electrical network by a specialist with subsequent inspection, cutting off the telephone booth, demolition of the concrete foundation, removal of debris, telephone booths, and subsequent sorting and ecological disposal. Then comes the phase of cleaning and landscaping the site where the telephone booth stood, for example, paving, asphalting, or sowing grass," summarizes Adam Klofáč.
The home stretch The result was phenomenal, as we ecologically disposed of all telephone booths throughout the Czech Republic in two years and met the agreed deadline. That was exactly our goal, which we achieved down to the last booth. We are glad that we were part of the long history of coin-operated and telephone card booths," concludes Adam Klofáč from MORIS design.
