Blanka has landed

Lovers of the calm atmosphere in Prague's Stromovka park are shaking with nerves. For two months now the legally protected park has been the site of construction. Builders may only be occupying a small part of the quiet zone, but the presence of heavy machinery is most suspicious. At night, when the construction site is lit up by enormous floodlights that are inescapable even in the darkest corners of the park, this is twice as true. What's going on? Locals mostly know – workers are fortifying the ground under which the infamous complex of road tunnels called Blanka is to lead. The problem is that advocates of that tube for cars have always claimed that Stromovka will never even notice the tunnel's construction.

Special treatment

Conservationists say grumbling is not befitting. They say the equipment will not damage the park and once the machines are gone, everything will be as it was before. „I've been monitoring Stromovka for seven years now. I won't let anyone touch her,“ says Jan Farkač from the Czech Agricultural University, calming nervous lovers of morning jogs. Not far from the construction lies a system of ponds and it is here that Farkač studies rare species of water snails. He says the builders behave very respectfully. „I come here to check up on things three times a week,“ says the man who has drawn up a report for the city…