Since October last year, drivers of too high trucks have therefore received a first report near Nieuw-Vennep. If the system signals a truck higher than four meters, a sign along the highway lights up. That plate summones the driver to take the exit to the A5.
If the truck driver misses or ignores the report, a second report will follow closer to the tunnel. Yet it is actually too late, a spokesperson for Rijkswaterstaat told NH last year.
The tunnel tube then closes, so that all the traffic in front of the tunnel comes to a halt at that time. Only when the too high truck is led away, does the tunnel tube open again.
On average more than 100 reports per month
Since October, the system has been signaling more than a hundred trucks that the drivers have missed the first report every month, a Rijkswaterstaat spokesperson told NH. On average, it concerns 3.4 heights per day, which means that the tube is locked three or four times a day.
On average, the tunnel tube closes 24 times a week. It is therefore very likely that someone who commands between Wassenaar and Amsterdam – such as De Koning – is very likely.
No empty or false reports
Yet it is explicitly not about false or empty reports, as King Willem-Alexander claims. “The detection only catches on with a report of four meters or higher,” said the spokesperson.
In some cases, the system alarms a truck that is lower than four meters. “For example, a valve sailing,” explains the spokesperson. Yet it is also of great importance that the truck does not enter the tunnel. “Because this can also cause damage.”
And then that hour traffic jam, what the king complains about? Is he right about that? The average handling time of an altitude report is 16 minutes, says a spokesperson. How long a traffic jam then needs to solve depends on the traffic supply. “It will go in the rush.”