Chaos threatens road and rail projects

Directors and officials of these two organizations came to The Hague on Wednesday afternoon with a strong warning. Here they told MPs about the obstacles and delays caused by the nitrogen problem. Ambitions must be lowered. At least ten jobs on the track are currently ‘high risk’, according to rail manager ProRail. Rijkswaterstaat has announced that it has a nitrogen problem in forty road and water projects.

The nitrogen threat is not new, but the dire situation is becoming increasingly clear because of two things. According to Mirjam van Velthuizen, the financial chief (CFO) of ProRail, this concerns the expiry of the construction exemption for nitrogen deposition (court decision in November 2022) and the nature target analyzes that are currently available. The rules are suddenly very strict, Rijkswaterstaat also indicates.

“Our agenda is in jeopardy. It is exciting”, Van Velthuizen told the Chamber. A very limited emission is also an emission. “And there is now a better understanding of the status of nature. It’s not pretty. That makes licensing more complicated.” According to her, it will be long and tedious bureaucratic processes. Significant delays are the result, as well as additional costs.

Exemptions

ProRail is out for exemptions, precisely to achieve the climate goals. Because the (additional) emissions are often minimal. Shutting down or scrapping jobs has greater consequences. In that case, climate goals and years will not be achieved, the railway manager indicates.

The approach to the bottleneck on the track at Meppel may be included in ProRail’s problem list of ten projects. This would also have major consequences for train passengers to Leeuwarden and Groningen. ChristenUnie MP Stieneke van der Graaf asked specifically about Meppel, but did not receive a clear answer. A spokesman for ProRail later said that the situation is complex. The railway manager wanted to say something about the size of the problem with the number of ten and ‘Meppel’ cannot confirm or deny it.

However, two projects were mentioned. In Wolfheze there is a risk of a delay of one year in the construction of a railway tunnel and in Moerdijk ProRail may be able to shunt 30 percent fewer trains. The risk here is that freight transport will soon be transported by road. At the expense of the climate and the climate targets.

Same boat

Rijkswaterstaat is in the same boat. ,,We also have a lot of problems with the nitrogen problem,” said Patricia Zorko, deputy director-general of the civil service. This concerns the construction of roads and waterways. The nature target analyzes are complex, according to Rijkswaterstaat. Additional closures and nuisance are lurking.

A colleague of Zorko mentioned some concrete examples, including the approach to the Van Brienenoord bridge in Rotterdam and the replacement of a shipping radar station in Zeeland. “Delays in implementation can lead to enormous traffic disruption around Rotterdam.” And in Zeeland, safety is directly at stake.

The officials gave more examples. It could just be that the construction of noise barriers, perhaps even everywhere in the Netherlands, cannot continue. The raising of quays and the implementation of flood risk management projects are also being delayed, according to Rijkswaterstaat. With “potential security risks” as a result. And the large-scale earthmoving that is necessary for the so-called Water Framework Directive, including in Friesland, also produces extra emissions. Another problem.

Very gloomy

All in all, both organizations sounded very gloomy. Employees said they wanted to focus more on maintenance and management (maintenance) than on the construction of new infrastructure. Minister Mark Harbers also indicated this earlier.

‘Clean’ equipment can be a solution, but is currently not widely available. Moreover, electric bulldozers, trucks and other vehicles do not solve all the problems, it sounded. After all, contractors must also have enough electricity at the construction sites. A huge amount of electricity, for equipment that needs to be recharged very quickly. That capacity is often not even there. ,,The problems are big and complex”, concluded Patricia Zorko.