Cologne Tunnel Contractor’s and Engineers’ Offices Raided

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image According to a Reuters article, Cologne State Prosecutors raided the offices of various contractors, engineers, and even the Cologne Public Transport company to collect evidence in an investigation into the cause of the collapse of a subway construction that destroyed Cologne’s historical archives building and killed two people. (Via ASCE SmartBrief, photo by the New Civil Engineer)

From the article:

A joint venture led by Bilfinger Berger, comprising Dutch builder Royal BAM Group’s Wayss & Freytag unit and Austrian peer Strabag’s  Zueblin unit, is building part of the tube line next to the site. The prosecutor said on Tuesday it raided offices belonging to the joint venture but that it had no suspicions so far that any specific person might have been responsible.

In other news related to the Cologne incident, tunneling work in Copenhagen, Denmark was put on hold for at least a week after the Danish Parliament got involved and wanted assurances that a similar failure to the Cologne collapse would not occur on their project. Now officials and engineers have announced that the planned metro expansion station close to the historic Frederiks church will be placed 2m deeper and 1.2m further away from the foundation of the church than originally planned. Source: New Civil Engineer.