The mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas, submitted the first expert report on the serious damage suffered by apartment buildings in Kypseli during the construction of Metro Line 4 to the head of the Athens Public Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday morning.
As a reminder, the two engineers who prepared the report, based on site inspections and data provided by “Elliniko Metro,” found damage to the load bearing elements of buildings and differential settlement, with some measurements reaching nearly four times the safety limit. Nikolaos Krasakis, a structural civil engineer, and Dimitrios Kaliabakos, a mining engineering professor at the National Technical University of Athens, were appointed by the City of Athens on behalf of the residents. They plan to return soon with a more detailed report and say the data supplied to them so far is incomplete and full of errors.
After submitting the report to the head prosecutor, the mayor of Athens said the findings do more than just fail to ease the residents’ sense of insecurity and uncertainty, they actively deepen it. “The report shows settlement that is four times above normal in some cases. There are buildings that have been marked red, meaning there is a high level of risk,” he said.
Incomplete data
He noted that the report covers only 14 buildings, and that data is missing for two of those. He said the total number of buildings that have suffered damage is estimated at 24.
Regarding the report expected from engineers appointed by the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE), he said that based on the information he has, it should be ready in the near future. He also said that within the next two weeks, a separate report should be ready indicating when the tunnel boring machine can resume work in the area.
Doukas repeated the city’s three main demands:
- That the data on the apartment buildings, along with data from the tunnel boring machine and the reasons the problem occurred, be released.
- That a structural inspection be carried out on all buildings “to put an end to the sense of uncertainty and insecurity,” and that damage be fairly repaired, with those responsible for the project held accountable.
- That the tunnel boring machine only resume work once it can do so safely. “We want to receive the report ourselves, along with the residents’ own experts, so we can go through the data in detail and see what the specialists recommend for how work can safely restart,” he added.
“Red” and “yellow” buildings
According to the mayor, additional data covering at least 10 more apartment buildings is still expected from “Elliniko Metro.”
“A series of inspections have been carried out that rank the buildings by risk level. Some have been marked red, and after further inspection some move to yellow, not green, and what does that mean? It means there is damage to the load bearing structure. Now, how serious is that damage? That’s what we want to find out,” he said.
He also said that according to information he has received from the Prosecutor’s Office, a preliminary investigation is already underway.
