"Blanka go Boom Again"

Big apologies for so long a silence on the blog. We're all taking turns fighting the flu (just regular kind, no swine stuff).

There is something we've been meaning to write about...there are tunnels being dug under our house. And for several weeks now, we get reminders several times a day by the dynamite blasts.

Now, before you yell "Freeze Gopher!!", you should know these are not ordinary tunnels. This is on par with Boston's Big Dig, as Prague tries the same to alleviate congested traffic. The project is called Tunel Blanka (the "Blanka Tunnel") and is tunneling under the city center, the Vltava river, and Letna and Stromovka parks. When the Blanka Tunnel is finished, it will be 3.5 miles long (5502 meters). Construction started soon after we got here and, from the constant blasting, it seems they're making a lot of progress. Should be finished in mid to late 2011, so we're thinking we won't be enjoying it personally.

What we do enjoy is the constant reminders, from underground dynamite blasts which rock our building in a very real way, once even shattering our downstairs neighbor's bathroom mirror. (Mattias thinks it is thunder and says, "Uh oh, it's raining!", even when there is a sunny blue sky outside.)

If you visit the official Tunel Blanka website, you can read exactly why we're concerned. On the website listing the buildings most affected, you'll see our building is "directly affected" - meaning it's subject to the maximum projected fall of 35mm. That's 1.5" which doesn't sound like a lot, provided the whole building will fall evenly.

But, honestly, there's little reason to think a large area of the surface would just cave into the ground. After all, it has only happened twice since they started construction!

After these setbacks, it's no wonder why they're taking such precautions as building a wooden, catch-all skirt around our house and all the "directly affected" buildings around us. See pictures - the skirt is just in case parts of a building should break away. We're sure the 2" planks will keep any passerby below safe from falling walls.