Since last February, officials at Hellenic Metro as well as at the consortium in charge of building Metro Line 4 knew about the problems the project would cause in the Kypseli area.
According to the CEO of AVAX, Konstantinos Mitzalis, from February 2026 until May 8, when the TBM (editor’s note: tunnel boring machine) stopped operating in the area, the machine had been halted three other times due to ground subsidence that exceeded the permitted limits.
However, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Nikos Tachiaos clarified that the subsidence initially recorded had not reached alarm levels.
No Timeline
At the press conference held on Monday morning (October 12) at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, attended by representatives of the relevant agencies as well as residents, no specific timeline was given either for the full repair of the serious damage to buildings in Kypseli or for restarting the tunnel boring machine.
NEWSLETTER TABLE TALK
Never miss a story.
Subscribe now.
The most important news & topics every week in your inbox.
Officials again argued that there was no mistake or negligence in handling the situation, attributing the problems both to the difficult geological conditions underground and to the age of the apartment buildings in the area, some of which, they said, date back to the 1930s.
They also repeated that the cost of repairing the apartment buildings will not fall on the residents, while assuring that the buildings will be fully restored to their previous condition.
As Minister Christos Dimas said, the tunnel boring machine will resume operation under stricter parameters, and only if independent experts determine, after an assessment, that the measures taken are sufficient.
“The restart date will be announced when all the necessary conditions are met and after residents have been informed,” he said, adding: “We are taking small, controlled steps and will have enhanced real-time monitoring of the project.”
A British Lord Joins the Expert Team
The president of the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE), Giorgos Stasinos, confirmed that, in addition to the inspections already underway in 14 buildings, inspections are also starting in six more.
It was announced that the independent team of experts now includes, in addition to Vassilis Marinos, assistant professor at the National Technical University of Athens, the distinguished British engineer and geotechnical expert Robert Mair, professor emeritus at the University of Cambridge and a member of the House of Lords.
New Extension for Line 4
It is worth noting that, following the problems that have arisen and remain unresolved, the project is expected to receive a new extension.
The original plan was for it to be delivered in June 2029. However, in early April, a few days before the incident in which the streets of Kypseli were flooded with a special foam that looked like liquid cement and is injected under pressure by the tunnel boring machine while digging the tunnel, it became known that a three-year extension had been approved, with a new completion date of September 2032.
For its part, the contractor had requested an extension until mid-February 2034.