Background

"This is no joke. That mountain will be build.", was the claim made on todays presentation of the Dutch mountain building project.

The idea of ​​a mountain is the brainchild of sports journalist Thijs Zonneveld from daily "De Pers". Since then, hundreds of professionals from different sectors started to actually considering the concept.

These brainstorming sessions now are over. During the next year a real feasibility study to provide clarity on whether the mountain is actually feasible will be made, and is planned to publish its results in late 2012. Some 70 companies from various sectors, including E. ON Energy and TomTom navigation systems, are involved in the project.

To complete a detailed concept, about 1.5 million euros is to be spend. A sponsoring contract with USG Innotiv, a secondment of highly trained technicians, was signed to carry out the study.

The mountain may take up to 60 to 70 billion euros, as estimated by one of the participants of the presentation, though opinions differ on this. As for the construction period. The project director believes that he will not see the completed mountain during his lifetime, but another thought that one quarter of the mountain might be completed within 3 to 4 years from now.

http://www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/4492/Nederland/article/detail/3079998/2011/12/16/Plannen-Nederlandse-berg-vorderen-Dit-is-geen-grap-meer.dhtml (dutch)
http://deberg.usginnotiv.nl/usg-innotiv-berg-nieuws/
http://www.diebergkomter.nl/
http://www.youtube.com/v/J5m-l3Xck5c