Metro line projects cause serious problems

AMSTERDAM – A new metro addition in the Dutch capital of Amsterdam is giving officials more difficulties than anticipated. The North/South line is turning into a more costly undertaking causing by cost overruns, delays and other problems, including four monumental canal houses on the former Vijzelgracht, which sustained significant structural damage when they started to sag. The project has recently claimed a casualty, namely the job of municipal executive T. Herrema, who was responsible for roads and transit. Elsewhere in Cologne, a metro construction job caused the collapse of the city’s archive centre claiming two lives as well as the loss of early Dutch diocese records.