This morning we met at the Central Station and then took a temporary steel stairway 100 feet underground where the new North-south subway is being built. The subway stations were built first, huge concrete boxes with concrete roofs and then they were covered back up. Then they brought in two huge tunnel making machines that could tunnel deep underground and the waste product was made in a slurry and pumped back to the surface. The machines run 24 hrs a day and progress is about a foot an hour, There are two machines one for each tube. Where there is enough room the tubes are side by side but when they only have a narrow space the tubes will be one over the other. When they ran into a soggy area they had to first freeze the ground before they could go on to prevent collapse. The subway tubes actually are one the bottom of the IJ River. They made the tubes in sections, towed them to where they had to be and then sunk them and joined them up underwater. Incredible engineering!
When the digging machines came to a prebuilt station it would bore through the concrete wall and keep going through the other side. The project is 6 miles long and all the heavy work is done. Now they have to finish the inside of the stations, lay the tracks and put in the escalators and they will be good to go. It will be another three years before they are done.
Rotarians Ko, Rob and Paolo preparing for the underground tour of the Amsterdam Metro construction site.
Colourful carpeting with patterns for all the countries representing the origins of Amsterdam citizens and the Amsterdam Museum.
Jamey with her favorite Rembrandt painting.
Wendy, with her background in engineering, is signing off on revised plans submitted for metro line improvements offered by group members after the tour. :-)
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