ATHENS, October 2026 — Kypseli subsidence caused by metro tunnelling gives no reason to evacuate buildings in the central Athens district, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Christos Dimas said on Monday.
Dimas spoke at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport on progress on Line 4 of the Athens Metro. The ministry called the briefing because of the Kypseli subsidence.
Ground movement has cracked buildings along the tunnel route. Preventing further significant settlement and removing the machine quickly is now the main goal, Dimas said.
“When someone sees cracks in their home, it is reasonable to be worried,” he said.
How the Kypseli subsidence began
Crews were digging the Line 4 tunnel from Kypseli station towards Dikastiria station, Dimas said. The monitoring system then recorded larger surface settlement than expected.
Afterwards, the tunnel boring machine stopped repeatedly for checks and adjustments, as the project’s procedures require. Since 8 May, it has stood still as a precaution in its current position.
Engineers then recorded and assessed the damage to each building separately, he said. Independent international experts received the task of identifying the causes.
The ministry also designed measures that will allow tunnelling to continue without new damage, Dimas said.
Readings in some buildings exceeded the alarm thresholds, he said. However, the system worked as designed, and that is exactly why the machine stopped.
“Exceeding them, however, is not a reason to evacuate the buildings,” Dimas said.
All measurements have gone to the City of Athens, he said. Every owner can see the data for their own building. The figures made public so far came from Elliniko Metro, the company building the line.
Ground conditions and monitoring
Technical reports on the Kypseli subsidence agree that the ground at some points was far more permeable than the soil around it, Dimas said.
As a result, the machine could not support the ground in front of it well enough there. The ground gave way, and the movement reached the surface as subsidence.
Dimas said the Kypseli subsidence has stopped for good along most of the finished tunnel stretch.
Since the machine stopped, no new settlement has appeared in the affected apartment blocks, and none is expected, he said.
Buildings in the last section, directly above the machine, remain under systematic and more frequent monitoring, Dimas said.
Source: Ta Nea
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