European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 14, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Londonio falling Down  critics say it will be hard to prop it up by William e. Schmidt the new York times Ondon s Westminster Bridge is falling Down or would be if engineers had not just embarked on a project to Shore it up. Across town near Sloane Square one of the victorian Era Iron beams supporting the roof of the underground station is cracked forcing trains to crawl through at15 Mph. Even big Ben in t standing As tall As it used to. In october engineers reported the 135 year old clock Tower was listing just Over a tenth of an Inch a slight tilt that some experts believe is related to nearby tunnelling for a rail line Extension. It was or. Samuel Johnson who said that when a Man is tired of London he is tired of life. But these Days As the sunday newspaper the observer noted recently when a Man is tired of London he May have a Good reason. The capital itself seems to be sagging gridlocked  constantly under repair. London is like a piece of gruyere cheese grumbled Gerry Brennan As his taxicab crept past Buckingham Palace where workers closed lanes to tear up sidewalks. There Are holes everywhere.   an olympic sport i can Tell you this Britain would win the Gold medal every  anyone who has lived within commuting distance of any big City knows that grousing about traffic  detours is just part of the usual background Static a kind of Urban White noise. But in London s salons  boardrooms in the letter columns  front pages of its newspapers the grumbling has built to a kind of Crescendo. London is crumbling under the Strain of modern living  trouble shooters Are failing to keep it from falling apart declared a special report broadcast this month on London s capital radio. Roads Are collapsing Bridges Are bending  buildings  for Many tourists London is still the most agreeable of foreign capitals safer cleaner More intimate than most. Yet the same things that Charm tourists narrow streets ancient buildings  quaint plumbing frustrate londoners since so much of the City at any one moment seems to be either broken or under repair. Movement for London a Public interest group that London s Urban woes extend far beyond substandard streets  sewers. Even the City s icons including big Ben Are showing signs of decay. The famous clock Tower is beginning to lean engineers say. Campaigns on behalf of transportation issues estimated recently that More than 2 million holes Are dug each year in London roads by any one of 17 different utilities  Public agencies which to make matters worse do not always coordinate their construction schedules. As a result these critics complain the City s traffic pattern has increasingly been turned into an Ever changing labyrinth of detours roadblocks  one Lane roads. /. There Are other holes too appearing entirely on their own. At Heathrow Airport a parking lot  office building alongside one of the main passenger terminals suddenly began to disappear last month when nearby tunnelling for a new High Speed rail line caused them to sink.",  " " some critics argue that the problem is complicated because London alone among the major cities of the world does not have its own Central elected government to oversee  coordinate activities. Since the greater London Council was abolished in 1982 by prime minister Margaret Thatcher who saw it As a redoubt of profligate socialism the administration of the metropolitan area has been Balkans Jed among 33 different boroughs  local governments five departments of the National government  60 separate boards  committees. Stephen o Brien the chief executive of London first which seeks to lure investors  businesses to London says the disruptions  repairs Are the Price that comes with building new rail links or installing a citywide system of underground wiring for Cable television. As a result of the recession key parts of London a infrastructure have suffered from underinvestment o Brien said. But in time you will see fabulous things we Are just All going to have put up with the misery until they Are  Roy Porter a historian  the author of London a social history published last month by Hamish Hamilton ltd., says he believes the jury is still out. For All its myriad charms its thriving neighbourhoods its open spaces London is suffering from its Lack of governance  Central planning Porter concludes. It s True that London is an old City  that its sewage system is crumbling  its Road system out of Date " he so Neo Nondon s famous Bridge Are a danger of. Telling Down. Here workmen repair Tower Bridge. Rome tries to give a Tyjohn Tagliabue the new York times t s the top after All it s the colosseum. So Rome s City government s measures to restore dignity to the immense ruined stadium seem fitting. First there were tie sunday pedestrian Days last Spring when the Broad via Dei fori Imperial Laid out by Mussolini in the 1930s As a Parade ground was closed to traffic. Then came the lifting  shifting of curbs to reduce traffic around the colosseum to two lanes from four  setting aside a third for buses. Now where traffic used to Roar gardens Are being planted. The changes Are an Effort by government planners to relieve the modern City s pressure on the Monument which was erected by the Flavian emperors Vespasian  Titus employing thousands of jewish slaves brought from Palestine after the romans had destroyed Jerusalem in . 70  crushed a fierce rebellion. The improvements Are intended to quiet the vibrations caused by traffic  reduce the exhaust fumes that eat away its facade of travertine. These measures Are More aesthetic than anything said Giorgio Croci a professor of engineering at the University of Rome. But they Are the beginnings of a $25-million Effort to restore the Monument that had become the very Symbol of the grandeur  permanence of Rome even As time nature  Urban turmoil took their toll on it. Over the next four years the colosseum s soot blackened Walls will be scrubbed its vaulting waterproofed  studies conducted to find out just How much it is suffering from the modern environment. The project will be financed by Banco i Roma one of Italy s largest Banks As a Public service project. To will be turned into a permanent patient in an intensive care unit said Mario Manieri Elia a historian who advises the City. One goal he said is to restore the stadium s Arena  some seating for theater  concerts by covering the Warren of Walls  passages that once Lay under the Arena floor  were used by the men who staged gladiatorial games. On a recent sunny fall Day vendors hawked colosseum to shirts outside the stadium. Inside knots of visitors stood around the Arena where patricians  emperors used to an italian Bank has funded a $25 million project to Spruce up the 2fooo-year-old roman colosseum. Sit. Down below where stagehands once handled tigers  Lions two cats squinted in the Sun. But the upper reaches of the immense bowl until recently accessible to visitors by stairs Are now closed because they Are considered unsafe. The government has spent heavily in recent years to clean some of Rome s noblest facades. Now Renaissance  baroque edifices like the churches of Sant Andrea Della Valle Santa Maria Maggiore  Sant Agostiny recently Large cracks have appeared on the upper portions of the colosseum. Gleam As they must have when they were new but for romans this is no purely aesthetic matter was it not the venerable Bede after All the eighth Century English Monk  chronicler who quoted the adage that As Long As the colosseum stands Rome stands when the colosseum Falls Rome also ends  when Rome Falls the world will end one of those who Felt the import of All this was italian dictator Benito Mussolini who made the colosseum the Symbol of what in the end was his somewhat ephemeral Empire. In 1932, he linked it to his offices at Piazza Venezia by the newly constructed via Del Impero or Street of the Empire after world War ii i became Street of the Imperial forum which pierced the newly. Excavated forum area. Croci who is also a City adviser said that four earthquakes the most recent in 1704, caused the greatest damage to the colosseum. The most severe in 1349, opened a Gap in the Side facing the Paelian Hill. The outer Walls have crumbled where they broke off a Haemorrhaging of Stone that 19th-Century engineers staunches by building two heavy Brick buttresses that visitors still Admire. But the breach by breaking the stadium s closed rim also causes the 175-foot outer Walls to tilt outward. Croci said that engineers might have to build a steel Corset for the colosseum Woven into its Structure so As to be invisible to visitors eyes to prevent further deterioration. Sample patches of the stonework have already been cleaned Manieri Elia said revealing in one Case a previously unknown Relief of a male figure whose purpose  Date have eluded scholars. He said that the Long term wish not part of the. Four year restoration was to tear up Mussolini s via Dei fori Imperial  continue excavating the forums turning the entire area into a vast archaeological Park documenting Rome s Imperial past. Adriano la Regina Rome s superintendent of archaeology says the main obstacles Are the problem of rerouting traffic  most significantly Money which. Has dwindled since the end of the affluent 1980s. Manieri Elia Hopes that resources will be found  that the research linked to the restoration will cast Light on som of the colosseum s lingering secrets. We Don t even know whether christians were really thrown to the Lions there he said. 18 the stars  stripes wednesday december 14, 1994 the stars  stripes 19 \