The tow truck drivers now almost know the route to the new De Groene Ruiter district in Uden by heart. Due to the thick snow cover of the past few days, hordes of cars and vans are stuck in the brand new ditches and wadis.
Large new-build houses without visible wear and tear, a couple walking the dog in the snowy landscape and here and there a pile of pavers that still need to be laid. After the winter weather of the past few days, the neighborhood looks almost idyllic.
“The roadsides and wadis were constructed here before the Christmas holidays,” says local resident Jan-Hein Dielissen. “Look, you can see that it is a meter deep here,” he says, as he almost rushes backwards into a wadi: a lowered pit intended to collect rainwater.
Several times
The district is set up as a ‘green’ district, with gas-free houses and plenty of space for nature on the roadsides. As he walks on, he sinks deeper and deeper; the snow now reaches up to his calves. What was intended as a space for nature is now a trap for traffic. Two tire tracks from earlier that afternoon reveal one of the many victims in recent days. The brown tracks disappear further and further into the thick layer of snow.
“With this snow cover, people can no longer see where the road ends,” he says. According to the local resident, the tow truck has already entered the neighborhood several times on Wednesday alone. “People don’t have an overview either,” he says, almost slipping into the wadi himself. “Owh-”
Van in the wadi
Photos from recent days show one van after another sliding into the ditch. In one of the images, a delivery man stands in a daze looking at his van, the rear wheels of which have completely disappeared into the hole. In another photo, a tow truck tries to pull a Jumbo delivery van out of the wadi.
“Because there are no trees or lampposts yet, drivers cannot see clearly where they are driving,” says Dielissen. Moreover, the district has only just been completed; in some places there is not even any paving yet. Still, he expects the problem to be temporary. “The weather is so beautiful and we don’t experience this that often in Brabant,” he says about the thick white suit that conceals the Wadis. “So I’ll enjoy it for a while.”
