Where is that bridge over the IJ in Amsterdam?

Also read this article: IJ bridges are put in the fridge: ‘You can start again in five years’

A cable car over the IJ. Quite a good plan, Amsterdammers think when they hear about it. But, almost immediately the counter question is: what about the bridge?

The jump over the IJ

For almost a decade, the municipality has been planning a bridge over the IJ, between the old city and Amsterdam North. No definitive starting shot has yet been given. While Rotterdam is taking significant steps towards a third city bridge these days, the people of Amsterdam will have to make do with overcrowded ferries behind Central Station for at least another ten years.

We get windmills, beer bikes and maybe an erotic center in Noord

Meanwhile, impatience is growing – especially among the residents of Amsterdam-Noord, who have to cross the IJ with their bicycle on the ferry every day. At the beginning of this year there was even a bicycle demonstration. Under the motto ‘What do we want? A bridge over the IJ!’ about fifty people drove through the city in the pouring rain. “Sad,” is how Ed Eringa of the Amsterdam department of the Cyclists Union, which organized the protest, describes the state of affairs with the bridge. “It is much too little, and much too late.”

In 2014, the municipality of Amsterdam launched an ambitious project: the Leap over the IJ. With the impetuous growth of the Noord district in prospect, the construction of a bicycle and pedestrian bridge had become unavoidable, according to the council. The ferries behind Central Station would no longer be able to cope with the crowds in the long term – and wasn’t it strange anyway that a permanent connection across the IJ had never been built?

The plan was ambitious: two bicycle bridges, in East and West, and a pedestrian tunnel behind Central Station. The first bridge, from the head of Java Island, should be there in 2025.

It turned out differently. Rijkswaterstaat rejected the design (too cramped, too busy, too dangerous), the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management – ​​which has the final say on the IJ as a shipping channel – thought that Amsterdam was operating far too stubbornly and soloistically and vetoed it.

A committee led by the Belgian urban planner and architect Alexander D’Hooghe broke the stalemate. An extensive report (2020) advocated the construction of, again, two bridges and a tunnel – this time with the support of the municipality and the national government.

The council thought it was a good plan and gave the green light for a first cross-river connection, slightly less centrally located than its fallen predecessor: the Oostbrug. To be completed in 2032. Later, around 2040, a West Bridge should be built. And, in the distant future, hopefully another pedestrian tunnel behind the CS.

Finally speed in the file? Nope. Thanks to corona cuts and a new college, the Oostbrug ended up at the bottom of the municipality’s priority list last year. In the budget for 2023, the reserved amount of 135 million euros had even completely disappeared. Shortly afterwards, when the council managed to arrange billions from the government for the tunneling of the A10 ring road at South Station and the extension of the North/South line to Hoofddorp, this caused outrage in the city: Schiphol and the Zuidas sometimes go above Amsterdam -North?

The municipal council has now released a budget for the Oostbrug, albeit less than before: 100 million euros. The Transport Region has pledged 75 million euros. That is not enough, admits alderman Melanie van der Horst (Traffic and Transport, D66): the estimated costs for the Oostbrug amount to 300 million.

She is hopeful that the government will match the remaining amount. The bridge can be there in 2032. Such a large project, says Van der Horst, “is simply a whole process”.

‘Kept sweet for too long’

Meanwhile, lost time leads to misunderstanding in North Amsterdam. The previously underdeveloped district is growing rapidly: according to the latest scenarios, the number of inhabitants of Noord will increase from 103,000 to 156,000 between now and 2040 – almost half that number. The lion’s share of the tens of thousands of homes that Amsterdam wants to build in the coming years will be located above the IJ. Why, says city district committee member Canan Uyar (PvdA), is a fixed cross-river connection with North not the number one priority? “The city council has kept us busy for far too long with an investigation here and a reserved amount there. Whenever considerations have to be made about infrastructure, the bridge loses out.”

The impatience about the bridge mixes with another sentiment among the ‘old’ Northerners, says Uyar. For decades, the municipality hardly looked at the part of the city above the IJ, and now Noord can solve all Amsterdam’s problems for a while? “We get windmills, the beer bicycles that are no longer allowed in the center and perhaps also an erotic center. They throw everything over our fence. But if you look at the needs of Noord itself, things are moving much too slowly.”

Nautical experts

The suction power of Noord is visible daily at the ferries behind Central Station. There it is so busy during rush hour that crossings regularly have to let one or two sailings go. And the municipality’s forecasts are ominous: to cope with the growth in passengers, the number of ferries in the morning and evening rush hours will have to more than double in the coming decade, from 10 to 11 to 23 per hour.

But if it takes longer, the question is whether it will still be possible to sail so many ferries

With such an increase, “according to nautical experts, the limits of a safe and robust system are being approached very close”, alderman Van der Horst wrote to the city council at the beginning of last month. “One or two years delay with the bridge, we will work it out,” she says NRC. “But if it takes longer, the question is whether it will still be possible to sail so many ferries.” It will be, according to Van der Horst, “exciting”.

Ed Eringa of the Fietsersbond thinks that things will get stuck at the ferries much earlier. He points to the Maritim Hotel, with almost six hundred rooms and a capacity of 4,400 people, the largest conference hotel in Europe, which will open its doors early next year – right across the street from Central Station. “We will probably have a ferry infarction, or residents of Noord will take the car again.”

Alternatives

The longer the bridge over the IJ is delayed, the more alternative plans emerge. A selection of the – whether or not elaborated – proposals of recent years: opening up one tube of the (existing) IJ tunnel to cyclists; An bicycle tunnel with spiral entrances behind Central Station; an underground passage with shops and entertainment on the same site; a ‘swing ferry’, powered by a magnet.

Of all those alternatives, only the cable car is being seriously investigated. Although initiator Wim Wessels – and the municipality too – emphasizes that it is correct not is an alternative: the IJbaan is intended as an addition to the existing plans, not as a replacement for a bridge or ferry. The intended location is not central enough for that.

The unique selling point of the cable car, says Wessels as he peers in the direction of the IJ, is that it will soon connect both banks of the planned urban expansion Haven-Stad (120,000 inhabitants). “That people think: hey, there’s the cable car. That’s Haven-City!”

Also read this selection of letters from 2020: Bridge over the IJ on the long track: good or bad plan?

A version of this article also appeared in the June 17, 2023 newspaper.