Marlies Bredehorst, head of Cologne’s environmental department, said on Sunday that 15 wells had been drilled in the immediate vicinity of the archive building since last September – instead of the four allowed by city code.
Although Bredehorst emphasised there was not yet proof that this led to the March 3 collapse, there has been speculation that too much groundwater was pumped out from under the city centre structure. The archive slid into a nearby construction site for a new metro tunnel, tearing down adjacent houses with it.
The city’s public transit authority maintains that the underground works were not to blame for the accident.
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