Skip to main content

Amsterdam’s Zuidas project criticised over possible disruptions

Amsterdam businesses, many of them global companies, face a decade of traffic disruption and noise when road works start in the Netherlands capital’s financial district. Among the projects in Zuidas will be putting the A10 ring road into a tunnel, the Financieele Dagblad newspaper reported. The Zuidas is a rapidly developing business district in the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The Zuidas, also known as the 'Financial Mile', lies between the rivers Amstel and Schinkel along the ringroad A10.
April 27, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Quiet before the storm in Amsterdam's Zudias district
Amsterdam businesses, many of them global companies, face a decade of traffic disruption and noise when road works start in the Netherlands capital’s financial district.

Among the projects in Zuidas will be putting the A10 ring road into a tunnel, the Financieele Dagblad newspaper reported.

The Zuidas is a rapidly developing business district in the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The Zuidas, also known as the 'Financial Mile', lies between the rivers Amstel and Schinkel along the ringroad A10. Large multinationals such as ING Group, ABN-Amro, and Akzo Nobel already have their headquarters in the area. The World Trade Center Amsterdam has recently been renovated and expanded.

The greatest influences for the development of the Zuidas are La Défense in Paris and Canary Wharf in London. In area’s railway station, Amsterdam Zuid will become the second main station of Amsterdam.

The transport ministry reportedly will not impose strict conditions on noise and traffic disruptions on the project but wants to see what conditions the winning contractors will self-impose.

The first contracts for the €1.9 billion project will go to tender in the next several weeks for work to start in 2017.

But opposition is growing to the project, including among former supporters such as former city council alderman Duco Stadig. He says revised traffic forecasts means the project mayu not be value for money.

The Zuidasdok project involves widening the A10 and placing part of it and the railway underground. Supports claim this will improve air quality and accessibility to the area, as well as create more space for housing.

The Amsterdam entrepreneurs’ association Oram says the noise issue should be left up to builders. “This is the most expensive location in the Netherlands,” a spokesman said. “The construction period could easily drag out to 15 years.”

Related Content

  • Tackling Europe’s urban road safety problems
    June 12, 2019
    Urban road safety is a key problem in Europe, an issue that needs to be addressed as a priority. That is the finding of a new report by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). The ETSC’s report reveals that road deaths on urban roads decreased at around half the rate of those on rural roads over the period 2010-2017. The report also shows that vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, account for 70% of those killed and seriously injured on urban roads. Dovilė Adminaitė-
  • New Silvertown Tunnel under River Thames in London
    May 11, 2018
    Transport for London (TfL) has been granted a Development Consent Order (DCO) by the Department for Transport (DfT) for the Silvertown Tunnel. This new twin-bore road tunnel will run under the River Thames in East London. The DCO is the formal process giving the green light to any development categorised as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP). The tunnel is set to open in 2023 and is intended to help reduce the chronic congestion at the existing Blackwall Tunnel. The project will also he
  • Traffic management drives sustainability
    June 18, 2012
    New initiatives could boost transport sustainability – David Crawford writes. New roles are opening up for urban traffic management systems in helping city authorities to meet increasingly stringent governmental and supra-governmental air quality standards. European local authorities are typically tasked with both traffic management and pollution monitoring within their areas, making them well placed to draw on the latter to mitigate the impacts of the former.
  • Let’s Boogie in a new tunnel
    July 7, 2020
    The new Victory Boogie Woogie Tunnel will be the most sustainable tunnel in the Netherlands.