Foreign experts to study Amsterdam's North-South metro line

[Puffin13]

Foreign experts to study Amsterdam’s North-South metro line
16/09/2008

Excavation work on the North-South metro line will stop for four weeks as the city council brings in foreign experts to unravel the mystery behind the sinking houses.

AMSTERDAM -- Amsterdam city council says excavation work on the North-South metro line in the city's Vijzelgracht is to remain shut down for at least four weeks. Excavations near the Rokin will also cease temporarily.

Work was interrupted for three months in June following a leak in the tunnel and the subsiding of a number of houses. Last week, it was announced that the problem had been solved.

However, a day after work started again, a number of houses sank as much as 24 centimetres.

Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen and other city officials are baffled by the cause of the leak as no one seems to know what were wrong despite three months of extensive checks and repairs. The city has decided to seek help from foreign experts in finding the cause of the new leaks.

The cost of constructing Amsterdam's metro continues to skyrocket and is now estimated at EUR 2.2 billion. Cohen said last week there was a danger that people would lose confidence in the multi-million euro project. According to a survey by local news broadcaster AT5, 34 percent of the city's residents already oppose the North-South line.

Source

[OneForTheRoad]

I saw a program on the tunnel that is being dug on Discovery Science, well it was on with another underground project (Singapore), they showed all the artefacts that were being brought up from the dig, lot's and lot's of bones...

[geoffk]

Do the people really use this line? I've read an article citing how big a waste it was and not many people would be served by this. I've never had a need for it as a tourist.