On the sunny Friday afternoon of October 1st, FRESH-students kicked off the new academic year with their first excursion: visiting the Noord/Zuidlijn (the North/Southline) in Amsterdam. This new metro line is one of the city’s most prestigious projects and is to connect the north of Amsterdam with its business centre in the south. Furthermore the metro line is supposed to reduce congestion in the city, making traffic more bearable and preparing the city’s infrastructure for the future. The project, however, has also stirred up much controversy due to the fact that both the budget has been greatly exceeded and the project is behind schedule. Furthermore the build of the metro tunnel caused problems in the city, where several buildings have sagged because of excavation activities.
The day started off with a presentation in the information centre of the Noord/Zuidlijn with two short films to provide some basic information about the project. The second film, focusing on the developments in and around Amsterdam’s Central Station, even featured in 3D and had everyone in the room wearing 3D-goggles. After this, two employees of the Information Centre guided us along several models, in the meanwhile providing in-depth information on the impact of the metro line on the city. The aforementioned budget- and planning problems were also addressed. The organization of the Noord/Zuidlijn is not oblivious to these problems and has taken promising steps to correcting them.
Strukton provided the second part of the presentations. Edwin van de Coterlet started off with a very detailed and clear presentation on the build of the metro station and tunnel beneath Amsterdam Central Station. The second part was presented by Ton Bruins Slot, who explained the process of building and submerging a metro tunnel. Strukton is also the company responsible for the tunnel that will connect the North of Amsterdam with the Central Station via a tunnel over the bottom of the IJ. Edwin van de Coterlet then took the group into the building-zone in Amsterdam Central Station, where we could see how the work he had explained in his presentation was coming along.
At the end of the day we went to café The Heffer to have a drink. But what started in one bar quickly became a short trip to several bars, ending in an Irish Pub where the day came to an end.