Dismantling each train track platform by platform: Minister Van den Brandt answered almost casually last Tuesday to questions from Défi, PTB, N-VA, Ecolo and MR in the mobility committee. The parties wanted an update on the work on the metro tunnel under the train station. They have been shut down for a year now due to an unforeseen layer of water that cannot be pumped away. “Despite large pumps, it was not possible to pump out the water sufficiently,” Van den Brandt said in parliament. “This creates a kind of swimming pool that fills quickly, but empties slowly.” The water is largely trapped between the retaining walls of the railway embankment and a layer of clay, making it difficult for it to seep into the subsoil. So it is not really about groundwater, but about a layer of water above it.
An alternative method is therefore required. Client Beliris will submit an amended permit application for this next week. It is Beliris’ turn to build a temporary terminus for metro 3 under the Brussels North train station. Temporary, because the intention is still to turn it into a longer metro line towards Evere later. The necessary tunnel would now be constructed higher than first planned, Van den Brandt stated in parliament, above the difficult water layer and not below it. But then, Van den Brandt said, “the technology is not about drilling, but temporarily dismantling the train tracks per platform.”
Will an above-ground excavation method be considered? “We are certainly not aware of that technical solution,” committee chairwoman Anne-Charlotte d’Ursel (MR) immediately responded. “If the tracks have to be dismantled, will train traffic have to be interrupted?” MP Isabelle Pauthier (Ecolo) wanted to know. The new solution does indeed provide for digging where there are tracks, Van den Brandt confirmed, because simply pumping the water away will not work. “We must take into account the NMBS, which is a critical link in the mobility network at national level,” said the minister.
Impact on train traffic
Although Van den Brandt spoke cautiously, she did reveal a piece of information that builder Beliris himself has not yet confirmed. “We will submit an amended permit application at the beginning of April. Until then, all information about the proposed techniques remains confidential,” says Beliris spokeswoman Elien De Swaef. The amendment permit only concerns new working methods, she says, not precise budgets or timing. “The planning is still being studied,” says De Swaef.
This lack of clarity already caused concern among local residents last month. “We hope that we will not become a second Stalingrad,” the traders from the Brabant district said at the time, referring to the Stalingradlaan around the South Palace. There, the construction site for the new Toots Thielemans metro stop is experiencing major delays due to unstable subsurface. Although it is not a matter of problems with the groundwater, it was also decided to start digging from the top.
Tags: Water North Station disappear aboveground digging table
