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

  • Improving safety for vulnerable road users
    January 2, 2013
    Dutch-style cycle safety for other European nations – Mike Woof writes A recent event held in London during October was aimed at improving safety for vulnerable road users. Called Love London go Dutch, the event was intended to highlight some of the experience from Holland in reducing risk rates for vulnerable road users such as cyclists. Similar events were held in other UK cities, while other major European cities such as Paris that are seeing an increase in cycling also have a lot to learn from Dutch exp
  • Montenegro on the ropes over China deal
    April 13, 2021
    The first 41km of highway cost €20 million per kilometre - one of the most expensive highways in the world.
  • Mombasa-Tanga link faces delays over design changes
    April 10, 2018
    Kenya has blamed design changes for delaying the start of work on a road linking the port of Mombasa to the Tansanian port of Tanga. The change to the key road’s design is from a single to dual carriageway along a section of the 445km transnational highway. However, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the principal financier of the project, said the Kenyan government itself was slow in completing preliminary studies, such as road designs, in order to start construction.
  • New northern relief road for Moscow
    August 20, 2015
    New Concession Company to build northern relief road of Moscow Kutuzov Avenue – Eugene Gerden writes New Concession Company has won a tender for the building of the Northern relief road of Kutuzovsky Avenue, a major radial avenue in the Russian capital Moscow. The firm is part of Leader company (one of Russia's largest management companies), owned by Yuri Kovalchuk, a well-known Russian businessman, who is reportedly close to Russia’s president Vladimir Putin. It is planned that the building of the n