[NL] Roads and Motorways in the Netherlands • Autosnelwegen

[ChrisZwolle]

One of the lesser known motorway aquaducts is along A4 on the western side of Delft. It's the Gaag-aquaduct and is also one of the smaller motorway aquaducts in the Netherlands. A4 dead-ends south of here until 2015, so there is not much out-of-region traffic, adding to the obscurity of this aquaduct. Notice there is space for 2x3 lanes with shoulders.

[ChrisZwolle]

I found another example of the lack of planning among some governments in the Netherlands, in this case the Tilburg municipality.

The N261 is part of the Tilburg Ring Road. Although planning already began in the early 1980s, actual construction did not start until the mid- to late 1990s. The northeastern part opened in three phases between 1998 and 2003 as a two-lane road with signalized intersections.

Traffic data from the year after opening already revealed significant traffic congestion, 2004 data shows an intensity/capacity value of 0.95. Anything over 0.90 is considered to be chronically congested. The I/C value should be below 0.75.

The new road was built as a two-lane facility, but roads crossing over the N261 had viaducts with space for a second carriageway. However, viaducts where N261 crosses other roads or railroads did not. Furthermore, a right-of-way for the second carriageway was not acquired during initial construction.

The N261 is currently being widened to a 2x2 highway, similar to the N260A and N260 around Tilburg, which together form the northern beltway of this city of nearly 200,000 people. Works should be completed within a few months.

[Daviedoff]

A video of A73 freeway in the snow:

[Slagathor]

Originally Posted by Suburbanist

There are ferries from Hoek van Holland. But with both flights and Eurostar+Thalys high-speed trains, the market for ferries is probably going waay downwards.

To frigging Harwich, which is no good. The old Olau Line used to do Vlissingen - Sheerness. Now that was awesome.

[Road_UK]

Originally Posted by Suburbanist

There are ferries from Hoek van Holland. But with both flights and Eurostar+Thalys high-speed trains, the market for ferries is probably going waay downwards.

No it`s not. People still want to be able to bring their own vehicles to Britain/Continent, and even though SeaFrance has gone up the wall, P&O and DFDS are still very much in the game when it comes to passenger, car and truck crossings...

Eurotunnel is not always reliable, often expensive and subjected to a lot of delays. That's why we only use it when we're desperate.

[sotonsi]

Originally Posted by Slagathor

To frigging Harwich, which is no good. The old Olau Line used to do Vlissingen - Sheerness. Now that was awesome.

Harwich at least has direct train services to useful places and isn't much further away from London than Sheerness (and much closer to most of the big cities/tourist areas in the UK). Plus - while the Essex coast is bad - Sheerness as the first bit of England you see close up is "I want to go back home!" territory.

Then again Sheppey, as a marshy flat low-lying sheep-covered cesspool might be acceptable to the Dutch

[Road_UK]

Essex coast is not all that bad, as long as you avoid places like Southend and Thurrock...

I have always found Harwich quite charming...

[Slagathor]

Originally Posted by sotonsi

Harwich at least has direct train services to useful places and isn't much further away from London than Sheerness (and much closer to most of the big cities/tourist areas in the UK). Plus - while the Essex coast is bad - Sheerness as the first bit of England you see close up is "I want to go back home!" territory.

Then again Sheppey, as a marshy flat low-lying sheep-covered cesspool might be acceptable to the Dutch

What good is a train when I've come by car on a ferry?

Boats are slow so the shorter the distance the better.

[Suburbanist]

If you want to take your car, isn't best to drive to Calais and cross there in a short time instead?

[Road_UK]

Originally Posted by Suburbanist

If you want to take your car, isn't best to drive to Calais and cross there in a short time instead?

Yep, that is what I always do.

[Penn's Woods]

Does your boss let you choose your own routes - "get to city X by noon Wednesday and don't spend more than X on fuel and tolls" - or specify them for you?

[Slagathor]

Originally Posted by Suburbanist

If you want to take your car, isn't best to drive to Calais and cross there in a short time instead?

Not when we lived in the Vlissingen/Middelburg area in the 1980s and early 1990s, no.

These days that would be the quickest thing to do. If you don't need your car, the quickest thing to do is to drive to Lille.

[Road_UK]

Nah, I choose my own routes, and sometimes even divert when I have time to visit friends and family. He encourages us to put our foot down, and using toll roads is never a big deal, although he does sometimes asks us to go the extra 100 miles via Brenner when going to Italy, instead of the expensive route through France and Mont Blanc.

[Des]

Originally Posted by ChrisZwolle

One of the lesser known motorway aquaducts is along A4 on the western side of Delft. It's the Gaag-aquaduct and is also one of the smaller motorway aquaducts in the Netherlands. A4 dead-ends south of here until 2015, so there is not much out-of-region traffic, adding to the obscurity of this aquaduct. Notice there is space for 2x3 lanes with shoulders.

That is a huge waste of money: look at the solid concrete bridge which is max 1,5 meters high a few meters away from the Aquaduct. They could have build a highway bridge instead of an aquadact, although maybe at the time it was build they were still expecting huge ships to use the canal

https://maps.google.nl/?ll=51.990154...275.42,,0,4.82

[ChrisZwolle]

The widening of A2 to 2x3 lanes. Near the town of Best (which means the same in Dutch as it does in English).

[Agnette]

Chris, would You say what is the source of aerial photos in your posts?

[ChrisZwolle]

A208 in Haarlem appears to be history... A part was already downgraded in 2009, but now it disappeared from the signs entirely.

Originally Posted by Agnette

Chris, would You say what is the source of aerial photos in your posts?

Most of the are from the Rijkswaterstaat Beeldbank. Some are from other sources. The last one was from Twitter.

[Godius]

Originally Posted by ChrisZwolle

Most of the are from the Rijkswaterstaat Beeldbank. Some are from other sources. The last one was from Twitter.

I didn't know that Rijkswaterstaat had a public archive like this, thanks for letting me know about it.

[mappero]

English copyright notice

The intellectual ownership of the image material lies with Rijkswaterstaat, the executive arm of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. No additional costs are associated with copyright, although it is mandatory to acknowledge the source with each publication: https://beeldbank.rws.nl, Rijkswaterstaat.

[ChrisZwolle]

The construction of a new alignment of A9 motorway around Badhoevedorp (near Amsterdam) has been contracted yesterday.

Construction will commence in the fall of 2013 and should be completed in 2017, after which the existing 2x2 motorway through the town of Badhoevedorp will be demolished. The new motorway will feature 2x3 lanes. Apart from the new motorway, the Badhoevedorp Motorway Interchange will be entirely rebuilt into a massive spaghetti interchange.