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New Vltava island is carved out

Karlín plans are latest phase in renewal of a flood-prone area

By Kimberly Ashton
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
February 14th, 2007 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
Jiří Friedel of Povodí Vltavy, the agency that oversees river activity, shows where an embankment will help the island protect the Karlín district against future floods.
The creation of an island brings to mind a primordial image: a mass of rock emerging from the sea with water cascading off it. But the making of an island on the Vltava River next year will be more plodding than dramatic.
To re-create Rohanský Island in a Prague 8 bend of the river, engineers say they will dig a canal along a route upon which the Vltava once flowed, detaching the piece of land — still called Rohanský Island — from Karlín.
“It will contribute to the protection of Karlín, where 30,000 people live, and it will improve the quality of life here,” said Jiří Friedel, operations manager for Povodí Vltavy, the agency that oversees activity on the river, as he stood on the deserted strip of land that soon will be an island.
Source: Vlasta Klokočková
Karlĺn plans
The plans are the latest chapter in the city’s five-year effort to rebuild and revitalize Karlín, which was devastated in the floods of 2002.
In recent years, a spate of development plans have surfaced that look to help Karlín join the ranks of Smíchov, another once-blighted part of Prague that has since turned into a vibrant commercial hub.
In 2005, private developer Alberto Di Stefano turned a disused factory at Křižíkova 34 in Karlín into a block of trendy artists’ studios and galleries.
Last year, Austrian developer Europolis announced its intent to build Amazon Court, a 1 billion Kč ($46.2 million) complex on the Rohanský embankment that is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2008.
And last month, Real Estate Karlín Group announced plans to build Corso IIA, a complex created by renowned Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill. It will join Corso Karlín, a four-story administrative building the group developed in 2001. They plan to build restaurant and retail space in the building.
On the waterfront
The Karlín Group is also shifting its focus to the waterfront with a development called River Gardens to be built in the next five to 10 years, which will include residential housing and new office buildings to line the Rohanský embankment.
All this is separate from the city’s island project, which will cost 1 billion Kč and is already under way.
Following the 2002 floods, the city erected anti-flood barriers along the river extending to the strip of land that will border the canal.
Since last year, workers have been extending Pobřežní street in Karlín just behind these barriers.
The barriers cost 300 million Kč and the road construction 250 million Kč, according to Jiří Toman, head of the city’s investment department.
On the other side of the barriers, which consist of raised walking paths at some points, the city plans to restore an arm of the Vltava — a canal 30 meters (98.4 feet) wide on its surface and a little over 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) long.
This canal will approximately retrace the path of the Vltava before 1926, when a massive engineering project rerouted the river under the newly built Libeňský most.
Eventually, the bridge will also be torn down and rebuilt as a wider span, a project expected to begin next year.
An island as protection
Creating a new island is more than just aesthetics. The city also says it will protect Karlín’s buildings and residents should the Vltava flood again.
Creating the island will make the Vltava shallower and give it a low-lying piece of land over which to flow, instead of spilling over into downtown.
A few meters of land will be removed from the surface of the island to lower it, and a park will be built on top.
City architect Vlasta Klokočková, who is working on the project, said the park will have a pond, a lookout, bike paths and a place to buy refreshments.
The other reason the city says the island project is important is because it could help render usable an area of Karlín that now sits barren.
An old concrete factory, the remains of a construction site, a small golf course, playing fields and changing rooms now sit on what will be Rohanský Island. All of this will be either torn down or built over, Friedel said. A train station that had been there was torn down in the 1970s.
The city originally owned about 90 percent of the land and has since bought the rest from private owners.
Beyond the park and behind the anti-flood barriers, private developers will build housing and shops along Karlín’s embankment, though those plans are some way off.
Olympic ambitions?
Friedel said another reason to revitalize the area is to make it more attractive as the city bids to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.
He said there has been some discussion of building an Olympic stadium in or near Karlín, although that was not the original intent when plans for the island project surfaced.
If everything goes well, Friedel said, the canal should be finished by 2009 and the park should be completed by 2010. The island will be accessible by footbridges for pedestrians and cyclists.
Naďa Černá contributed to this report.

Kimberly Ashton can be reached at kashton@praguepost.com


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