Amsterdam’s new metro line is turning into such a financial deep hole because officials used estimates rather than actual calculations for many of the costs, the NRC says on Wednesday in a reconstruction of events.

The paper says it was only by using estimates when drawing up contracts with third parties that the council was able to get the project inside its official budget in the first place.
That budget has now risen from €1.4bn in 2003 to €2.1bn now. And the completion date has been extended from 2011 to 2016.
The NRC says estimates were used for a number of fundamental parts of the project such as digging out the construction sites and putting in concrete walls. These low estimates were put in the contracts, with the council guaranteeing to pay any extra costs.
Council executives involved with the project told the paper they were shocked and knew nothing about it.