Prague lays out tasks in wake of Blanka Tunnel collapse

The City of Prague has approved a schedule of tasks to be undertaken as a result of the collapse of a part of the Blanka Tunnel last week, Mayor Pavel Bém said Tuesday. In addition to demanding an independent analysis of the work done until now, the city wants an analysis of the possibility of terminating its contract with the constructor, Metrostav, and the possibility of penalising the company financially, which would entail more money than the 5 million crown fine that the Czech Mining Office could impose. Metrostav on Tuesday issued an apology for the complications and announced that last week’s collapse could have been caused by human error, project inaccuracies, leakage of water into the rock cover, or a combination of those factors. The mining office has said that geological causes were unlikely. The collapse – the third to plague the 6km tunnel - left a worker buried, though uninjured, for six hours, and a large crater in the garden of a building of the Ministry of Culture near Prague Castle.