Student researches options of opening up former canals

LEIDEN – Can a city canal which was once filled in to make way for a store-lined promenade and pedestrian walk be dug up again with a parkade constructed underneath? These and other associated questions have been handed to a Delft Technical University student as an assignment for his final examines. The study is the first step in a process, which will establish the desirability and the feasibility of reopening previously filled in waterways. The Leiden study concerns the Lange en Stille Mare in the city’s core. There are similar projects under way in various parts of the country, some of which have been put on hold due to tight budgets and escalating costs.