Photos from underground: Building Amsterdam’s new subway line.

My work, the University of Amsterdam Mediastudies Department, is located next to the Rokin. The Rokin has been under construction for many years now, in order to build Amsterdam’s new subway line that connects Amsterdam North to Amsterdam South.The project is taking longer than expected, costs millions more than expected which may have led to the media campaign the city of Amsterdam has been running for a few years to engage its citizens with the project. Of course they are running a social media strategy with a YouTube account, a Facebook page and a Twitter account where they show the progress and answer questions but my favorite way to increase engagement is that you can actually visit the worksite underground! Only 50 metres from my work you can walk down two flights of stairs and enter the a secured area that looks over the worksite. Once you’re down there you start to realize how enormous the entire undertaking is of drilling a shaft that is kilometres long and that actually runs underneath a lake, since the Ij is technically not a river! I can recommend everyone to visit the Uitkijkcentrum Rokin.