Perpendicular Pisa?

The leaning Tower of Pisa is two inches straighter than it was at the start of the year and should be sturdy enough to open to the public in June 2001, an engineer said Thursday.

Tourists last made the dizzying ascent inside the 12th century tower more than 10 years ago, before it was closed in an attempt to stop its dangerous tilt and then try to straighten it. Work is now in its final phase, with experts removing some 100 tons of dirt from under the monument's foundation.

Chief Engineer Paolo Heiniger said the digging was proceeding on schedule. He predicted the tower would lean as much as 20 inches less when the project is complete. Going into the experiment, the tower leaned some six degrees, 13 feet off the perpendicular.

Before tourists go back up the tower, workers will remove 10 steel rings that were placed around the tower to strengthen it, as well as some 800 tons of lead counterweights placed at the monument's base to shore it up while work was being done.

Also to be removed are a pair of slender, steel "suspenders," attached to the tower as another precaution in case it needed to be yanked back up during work. So far the suspenders haven't been needed.