Tag: North/South line

Drilling for the North-South extension of the Amsterdam metro system is scheduled to start on March 11, but now warehouse De Bijenkorf has demanded the city first performs more research into the risks involved.

Persistent problems during the construction of underground stations for the metro line have already caused damage to several historical buildings.

The collapse yesterday of a buiding in the city center of Cologne, Germany, reverberated loudly in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

German authorities haven’t yet determined what brought down the structure, which housed Cologne’s historical archive, but the city is building a new subway line under the buildings that collapsed. Amsterdam is also building a subway line underneath its historic center, and buildings along the project have already sustained damage.

Seventeenth-century masons built Amsterdam on a foundation of wooden poles planted in soggy, sandy ground, leaving behind a beautiful architectural museum — but one with walls prone to sinking or crumbling without warning. So how do you dig a subway under it? Very carefully.