The National Bank of Ukraine has begun excavating a 40-meter-deep gold vault beneath the Livoberezhna subway station, a project officials say will protect the nation's bullion reserves from the inflationary pressures now rippling through global markets. The vault, which will eventually span three kilometers of tunnel, will be serviced by a dedicated armored train that runs on a newly laid branch line connecting directly to the bank's headquarters.
«We cannot allow a two-day drop in gold prices to dictate the security of our national wealth,» said Deputy Governor Serhiy Mykhailovych, standing beside a pile of freshly dug earth that workers have been carting away in wheelbarrows around the clock. «The subway is the only place in Kyiv deep enough to be safe from inflation, foreign exchange fluctuations and, should it come to that, the whims of commodity traders in London.»
The project has already disrupted commuter traffic, with the station's eastern platform closed to make way for a freight elevator large enough to lower a standard 400-kilogram gold bar. Subway officials have announced that trains will now run at reduced speed through the station to avoid disturbing the vault's sensitive weighing equipment, adding roughly seven minutes to every journey on the red line.
Construction crews are working in three shifts, and the bank has ordered an additional 2,000 tons of reinforced concrete to line the vault's walls. A canteen has been set up in the station's disused ticket hall to feed the workers, who have been issued commemorative hard hats stamped with the bank's eagle emblem. The vault is expected to open in the spring, with a ceremonial first deposit planned to coincide with the anniversary of the subway's founding.