Posted on 02/19/2008 4:30:09 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
AMSTERDAM is to go underground as overcrowding and soaring land prices force planners to look beneath the city's famous canals for future urban development.
The canals will be drained to allow architects to build the underground city, which will reduce the pressures of overcrowding and slash the cost of a parking space
Dutch engineers have unveiled plans for a £7.4 billion underground city providing one million square feet of underground retail, leisure and parking facilities.
"There has always been a lack of space in the city, so what we are doing is building a city under the city by using a new construction technique, which will not interfere with street traffic," said Moshe Zwarts, a partner at the architects Zwarts & Jansma.
Residents of the historic houses that line Amsterdam's central canals have to wait up to seven years for parking permits and a garage space can cost as much as £74,000.
Property prices, once a bargain in the Dutch city that is the cultural and commercial capital of the Netherlands, are also soaring. The price of an apartment in the De Pijp district which cost £90,000 in 1999, has risen nine years later to £223,000 or more.
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The one-way streets, on either side of Amsterdam's waterways, are also feeling the strain of overcrowding, and traffic is frequently thrown into chaos for hours by delivery vans and rubbish collectors.
Amsterdam was originally built on drained, swampy marshland and many of the classic Dutch gabled houses along its canals are still precariously supported by underground wooden beams.
To find space for new developments, the Dutch engineers have decided it is easier to build in the clay under the canals.
Under the plans, canal water will be temporarily pumped out in order to start construction beneath.
"Amsterdam sits on a 30-metre layer of waterproof clay which will be used together with concrete and sand to make new walls," said
Mr Zwarts.
"Once we have resealed the canal floor, we will be able to carry on working underneath while pouring water back into the canals. It's an easy technique and it doesn't create issues with drilling noises on the streets."
Youssef Eddini, a spokesman for the Strukton engineering group that will build the underground city, has stressed that the new plan will not cause as much disruption as other projects.
"All materials could be brought to the site by water. We can use the canals as a road," he said.
The article is using British pounds for units of money, so it’s actually around $14,000 USD per sq. ft. (1 Brit pound = 2 US dollars).
Have these people checked out Atlanta?
Last time I was there I was told NEVER to go underground. It wasn’t safe.
The link is no good
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