As has become traditional, the city of Prague announced on Thursday that the completion of the Blanka tunnel will be delayed. This expensive infrastructure project has become a running joke for Prague residents, who were originally promised that the tunnel from Hradčanska to Letna, and under the Vltava river to Troja would open in 2010. Construction on the project has been snarling traffic in the city since it began in 2007. In the meantime, the project suffered three separate cave-in accidents, one of which swallowed up the parking lot of the Ministry of Culture, a bulldozer, and its driver (who escaped with his life).
Every possible reason has been given for an unending list of delay announcements, or so it seemed. In this latest PR snafu, which ended hopes that the tunnel would open in April, the reason given for pushing opening day back again was rain. It’s unclear whether the project’s design had counted on the possibility of bad weather, however, in a recent storm, cables along the length of the tunnel were exposed to water and will have to be replaced. Rather than provide another date for the tunnel’s opening, the city has simply admitted it doesn’t know.
