After years of designing, building and pumping, the OMA-designed Souterrain in The Hague finally opened a month ago. Now that the peace has returned, ArchiNed's very own 'Hagenees' Sebas Veldhuisen tours the combined parking garage and tram tunnel, gathers the facts, and poses two questions for readers.

facts:
Client: Dienst StadsBeheer Den Haag, Projectorganisatie Tunnels Centrum
Investment: around €250 million (1996 estimate: €127 million).
Length: ±1,250 metres on three levels, reaching a depth of ±13 metres below sea level.
Function: 500 parking places on two levels, two tram tracks for three routes.
Capacity: The capacity of the tram tunnel is 40 trams per hour in each direction, similar in frequency to the world's busiest metro systems.
Architect: OMA started the project in 1990 with Rem Koolhaas as chief designer. During construction the 'creative supervision' was entrusted to Rob Hilz of LAB-DA.
Construction period: mid-1999 to October 2004.
Design features: parquet floors of container wood, walls of rough concrete, historical references and artefacts in vitrines.

names:
Official name: Souterrain
Popular name: Tram Tunnel
Pet name: Swim Tunnel and TramTanic

history:
The idea for a tram tunnel first surfaced in 1969 when it was proposed as part of a new rail line called Randstad Rail. Tunnel construction halted for two years in 1998 because of water leaking from an underground stream. Although the problem was known before construction started, measures to re-route the stream were abandoned for budgetary reasons.

reader question 1:
What was the reason for constructing a tram tunnel?
a) To cater for a doubling in the number of passengers using public transport. (Passenger numbers have remained stable since 1991, however.) b) To finance 500 underground parking places through government subsidy by using the tram tunnel as a cover.
c) To eliminate any possibility of realising the opposition plan to turn Prinsegracht into a canal again. (Which did happen unintentionally, as it turned out, because of the leak.)

readers question 2:
The tram tunnel comprises three levels. The upper two are parking levels. Why are the tram tracks on the lower level?
a) This is spatially more interesting because transferring passengers have to descend three flights of stairs.
b) The government provided funding for a tram tunnel only, not for the two parking levels. This was the most expensive solution and, hence, secured the biggest subsidy.
c) For technical reasons, OMA was afraid to place the tram route on top of the garages.

(answers to the questions are hidden in one of the pop-up photo windows)

Walking Tour

		(click on the image to enlarge)