After years of seeing rains wash away the gravel around the grounds of Norway’s Royal Palace, state officials are allotting NOK 70 million to replace it all with a new, more permanent type of gravelly ground cover. The palace grounds are supposed to get their facelift in time for bicentennial celebrations of Norway’s constitution in 2014.
“We don’t have much time, but we’ll manage,” Rigmor Aasrud, the government minister in charge of such projects, told reporters just before the weekend.
The government is paying to remove all the gravel on the grounds around the palace just after the 17th of May celebrations later this year, and then dig up old asphalt lying under the sand and gravel that often runs down to Karl Johans Gate during rainy weather. New gravel with an invisible binding element will replace the current surface.
Debate had raged for years over the state of the palace grounds. Now Aasrud said she thinks King Harald is as satisfied with the rehabilitation project as the government, which presented and won approval for the project on Friday.
newsinenglish.no staff
