Brussels tunnels: the mice are off the hook

The dust has settled on media reports that mice had eaten the plans for Brussels' tunnels. So what's the real story?

Last week it was reported that the technical archives relating to the construction of the Brussels tunnels have gone missing, probably eaten by mice, according to someone from Bruxelles Mobilité, speaking to the new special committee on the renovation a maintenance of the capital’s crumbling tunnels.

The story was rapidly picked up by the international media, thanks to Reuters. And who can blame them?

How did the mice get at the archives? Well, because they were being stored inside the pillars holding up a flyover in Schaerbeek. The tunnel service’s office in those days was in a hotel where there was no space to store documents. So they were stored inside a bridge. Then moved later, twice.

And the mice? The site of the Reyers flyover, as it was known, was reported to have released a plague of rats living inside the structure into the neighbouring environment. (Apparently someone at Bruxelles Mobilité needs a quick zoology lesson.)

The next day, the case became somewhat clearer. The expression “eaten by mice” was only “a figure of speech,” explained Bruxelles Mobilité spokesperson Inge Paemen. The technical installation near the flyover where the archives were eventually moved was not designed for archive storage, and some of it succumbed to the unsuitable conditions. Another part was destroyed by water damage at the new location in the North Station area.

The archives are gone, whatever happened. The mice, however, are off the hook.

Photo: Ingimage