Amsterdam's decision to build a second metro line was flawed, according to an inquiry which will be published today and which is quoted in daily de Volkskrant.

A committee which has investigated the political process leading up to the decision to tunnel through the centre of the Dutch capital says that technical, organisational and financial risks were largely ignored. The political desire to build the line was paramount, according to the committee.

Peaty soil
The building costs of the metro line rocketed from the estimated 1.4 billion to 3.1 billion euros. Completion had been foreseen by 2011, but is now expected to be achieved in 2017. Daily NRC Handelsblad reported in September that the German company building the underground stations had little or no experience with this type of work in Amsterdam's soil type. The city is built on peaty soil interspersed with layers of clay and sand. When the company alerted the local government that it was faced with insurmountable problems because of the soil properties, their plea for a reconsideration of the project fell on deaf ears, NRC wrote.

Will heads roll?
The local councillor who was responsible for the project, Tjeerd Herrema, resigned in February when another setback of 290 million euros was recorded. It remains to be seen whether Tuesday's inquiry report will have political consequences for the Amsterdam government.

The impact of the building process on the local population was also ignored, the committee says. In June 2008 a row of historic 17th-century houses became uninhabitable when tunnelling caused the soil to subside.

Amsterdam's Vijzelgracht with subsided homes (ANP Photo)