Amstelveen will have to deal with the inconvenience caused by the gigantic project to widen the A9 highway for a while. In order to accommodate local residents, Rijkswaterstaat tries to involve them in the project as much as possible. On Saturday, residents of the Oude Dorp were allowed to help turn the soundproof containers placed in front of their houses into a work of art.
The artwork will be 36 meters long and many Amstelveen ‘icons’, such as the Annakerk, can be found on it. The tower of the church continues into that of the real tower, because the church is on the other side of the highway. The noise barrier that serves as a canvas for the mega painting has been placed to reduce noise pollution from the A9 and work on that road.
“You’d rather look up to a wall with a drawing than to a highway”
The Amstelveners who come to paint in the heat are positive about Rijkswaterstaat’s idea. “You’d rather look up to a wall with a drawing than to a highway”, says 10-year-old Mauro, when NH Nieuws takes him out of his concentration for a chat between painting.
The boy lives opposite the containers and has to look at it for 2.5 to 3 years. Mother Dorien also thinks it’s a good idea. “It’s an amazing design and it’s nice that we can fill it in with the neighborhood. That way you feel a bit involved in the entire project,” she says with a brush in hand.
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Amstelveners make container art – NH Nieuws
Artist Tim Roderman sometimes has to watch with sadness how the smallest helpers color far beyond the lines he has applied. “But I’ll just do that again soon,” he laughs.
It should really become a work of art for the neighborhood. Local residents are therefore involved from the very first moment in the creation of the artwork, says Roderman. “They were able to provide input and I collected all those ideas and used them to create different designs. The neighborhood then unanimously chose this design.”
The widening and tunneling of the A9 has now ensured that Amstelveen is a construction site for two years now. Residents, and in particular local residents, can brace themselves in the coming years, because Rijkswaterstaat does not expect to be finished with all the work until early 2027.
“We are now constructing the ‘bypass'”, says area manager of Rijkswaterstaat Lammert Postma. “That is actually the A9 temporarily shifted to the south, so that we can construct the first part of the sunken location on the north side of the A9.” Cars can still pass Amstelveen on three lanes in this way.
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In order to be able to construct the bypass, the noise barriers at the Oude Dorp must be removed. Because the noise from the highway will be even louder with the adjacent work, a row of sound-proof containers has now been erected. It is intended that these will remain in place for a maximum of three years, but according to Postma, the neighborhood may ultimately decide whether this is necessary for longer.
Not only children are busy with the brush on Saturday. The artistic Wilma is already helping for the second time. “It was only allowed once,” she says with a mischievous smile. “Painting is really my passion, I can lose myself in it”, she explains her enthusiasm for the project.
Neighbor of the artwork Dorien likes to look at it for three years, as she looks up with satisfaction. “What would she think if it were to remain permanently?” wonders Amstelland reporter Celine Sulsters. “I’d rather not,” she laughs. “I hope that we will soon have a beautiful park that we can look out on, and I would rather have that than a few containers.”