In March of last year, I blogged about an excavation conducted at the Venizelos metro station which brought to light a very well preserved 70-meter section of a marble-paved road, the remains of buildings dating back to the sixth to ninth centuries AD, as well as big public buildings of the 7th century; a rarity for the Byzantine world. Trouble was (and is) that the site of the find is part of a new subway tunnel and platform which are being built to transport 250,000 passengers daily, and thus decrease traffic congestion and air pollution in the city. The entire subway project has a price-tag of 3.5 billion euros (4.6 billion dollars), and was co-financed by the European Union. To keep the road, the entire subway project would have to be abandoned. To save the subway project, the road would need to be moved, or destroyed--the same thing, according to archaeologists.
By April it looked like Thessaloniki's government and archaeological institutions had found a solution to the problem: they were going to temporarily remove the finds during the station's construction and then restore about 85 percent to 95 percent after the station was completed. The solution proposed had a low cost--0,6 percent to 0.8 percent of the budget--with zero or only a few months delay to the works’ completion. Only a 45 square meter space (out of the area’s 1.600 square meters) would not be restored, due to the placement of vents and escalators.
By February of this year, word got out that the removal of the antiquities from the construction site was suspended in July of last year following a decision reached by the Council of State. In the beginning of April I blogged about the estimation that it will take at least another three years and some 40 million euros for the excavation of ancient ruins to be completed. Well, it seems that that was a careful estimate: the new numbers weren't pretty. the new completion date was somehwere in 2020 and it might cost another 42 million euros in funding for the archaeological work it has lined up to complete the digs, on top of 92 million already spent.
The troubled project could be set for another blow as the consortium building the underground transport system asked for its contract to be torn up. The consortium, made up of Greek and Italian companies (AEGEK-Impregilo-Ansaldo-Seli-Ansaldobreda), made the move after a court of arbitration ruled earlier this year that it had the right to ask for the contract to be scrapped. The government had extended the agreement with the consortium to November 2016 after a series of obstacles, including archaeological fines, held up the project. However, the consortium argued that it had not agreed to the extension and that it should be allowed to walk away without having to pay compensation. The court ruled in the contractor’s favour.
Attiko Metro, which manages the project, is left with two options. One is to accept the consortium’s request, pay up for the work that has been carried out and launch a new tender. The other option is to reject the consortium’s request and attempt to find a way to continue their relationship. Christos Tsitouras, president of Attiko Metro:
“Attiko Metro wants the project to continue through a lawful process. We will not accept a discussion on issues that have already been referred to arbitration. We can discuss with the consortium possible changes to the remaining project, which could be recorded in a supplementary contract.”
The original contract for the construction of the Thessaloniki metro was signed in April 2006 but less than 40 percent of the project has been completed so far.
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