The motorways and cycle paths in the Gelderland village of Westervoort are much busier than usual, as became apparent on Thursday during the morning rush hour. In the Rijnstate hospital in Arnhem, work schedules and patient planning were turned upside down. And at transport company Visser in Duiven, the director complains about tens of thousands of euros in extra costs per week.
All around Arnhem, road users are bracing themselves for a traffic jam that Rijkswaterstaat calls “the biggest nuisance in twenty years in the East of the Netherlands”. The region has been preparing for months for work that could lead to apocalyptic chaos on the road.
Rijkswaterstaat is renovating the concrete IJssel Bridge, an important link in the A12 near Arnhem. From April 7 to May 14, the concrete will be repaired, the asphalt will be replaced, the cycle path will be renewed and the crash barriers will be improved. The A12 does not close completely; the capacity will increase from two times four lanes to two times two, and the maximum speed will become seventy kilometers per hour. From 2022 to 2025, the two adjacent steel bridges were already repaired.
The three IJssel bridges – together eight lanes, four towards Arnhem and Utrecht, four to Germany – together form one of the most important connections in the region. Nearly 127,000 vehicles use the road every day, according to Rijkswaterstaat, of which 12,000 are medium-duty and 9,000 are heavy trucks. During the work, the bridge can only handle approximately 60,000 vehicles per day – less than half. According to the ANWB, the IJssel Bridges were in the ‘morning rush hour top 10’ last year, ranking as the 6th busiest junction in the Netherlands.
Maintenance of the concrete bridge can no longer be postponed, says Rijkswaterstaat. And that applies to more infrastructure in the Netherlands. Many roads, bridges, tunnels and viaducts were constructed in the 1950s and 1960s and are at the end of their technical lifespan. Traffic has also become faster, heavier and more intensive, which puts more pressure on the infrastructure.
The IJssel Bridges were in the ‘morning rush hour top 10’ last year at 6th place of the busiest junctions in the Netherlands
Rijkswaterstaat will therefore face an enormous maintenance challenge in the coming years. This is primarily a financial problem: to carry out all the necessary work on motorways, plus waterways and flood defenses, the service has a deficit of 34.5 billion euros. But there is also a shortage of professionals, equipment, and time and space to carry out the work without disruption. Road users must more often take disruptions into account due to necessary maintenance, the government has been warning for some time.
Rijkswaterstaat tries to limit disruption in three ways: smart planning, smart building and smart travel. Prefer short complete closures than long-term partial restrictions, for example. And working from home and alternative forms of travel are encouraged.
Work for the renovation of the concrete IJssel bridge on the A12 near Arnhem on Friday.
Photo SEM VAN DER WAL / ANP
In the Arnhem region, travelers receive discounts on trains and buses and can try out e-bikes and speed pedelecs for free (all 202 available bicycles have now been reserved). They also do not have to pay for the ferry between Rheden and Lathum. Additional Arriva trains will run from Monday. Advisory routes have been set up for international traffic to and from Germany via, among other things, the A73. Rijkswaterstaat pays for part of the nuisance-reducing measures (such as the free ferry for pupils, students and commuters and the discount on public transport), while the authorities pay for the rest.
How this all works out is evident in Westervoort, Arnhem and Duiven.
By bike in Westervoort
At the intersection of Dorpstraat and Brugweg in Westervoort, Laura Kaper and Klaas-Jan Gräfe are standing at half past eight on Thursday morning. She is a mobility alderman, he is program manager of Slim & Schoon Onderweg. Seventeen municipalities in the Arnhem-Nijmegen region work together with the province of Gelderland, Rijkswaterstaat, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, the business community and transporters.
Kaper and Gräfe hand out gingerbread and information cards to cyclists who stop at the traffic lights. “We were first on the Westervoortsebrug,” says Gräfe. “But the cyclists race past there at great speed.” Long live the bicycle, is the motto, especially now that the Westervoortsebrug is the only one in the area to cross the IJssel (by car and by bicycle).
Work for the renovation of the concrete IJssel bridge on the A12 near Arnhem.
Photo SEM VAN DER WAL / ANP
“For some time now, the road through our village, over the Westervoortsebrug, has been a favorite shortcut to avoid traffic jams on the A12,” says councilor Kaper. “That is at the expense of our living environment. It would be nice if the work on the IJssel Bridge encourages people to cycle more often.” Gräfe also hopes for such a change in behavior. “We always say in the office: it has to hurt a little before people change their behavior.”
It has to hurt a little before people change their behavior
The traffic light turns red. Chantal Hendriks squeezes the brakes of her bicycle. A long line immediately forms behind her. A single cargo bike, many e-bikes, trendy sports bikes. “I wanted to go by car this morning,” says Hendriks from Duiven, a village a little further away. “I have to go to a medical appointment in Arnhem. Before I left, I checked my travel time. That long? Then I’ll take the bike.”
Marcel Robben, a civil servant at the municipality of Arnhem, does not need any encouragement to cycle to work at city hall. “I always go by bike. But that increasingly applies to my colleagues as well.” For a few weeks now, says Robben, the municipality has been alerting officials to the upcoming traffic disruptions. “And since the autumn we have been able to get a mobility card that allows us to travel partly for free, with public transport for example. Seven hundred people have now done so. And I understand that: public transport is quite expensive if you have to pay for it yourself.”
In Rijnstate hospital
In recent weeks, stories have appeared in the local press that the Rijnstate hospital is very concerned about its limited accessibility. That’s not too bad, says Galiëne Pott of the communications department. “The noise on the outside – in the press – is still greater than the nuisance.”
Since mid-January, says Pott, Rijnstate has been adjusting staff schedules and aligning patient care planning with traffic restrictions. “For example, colleagues from Zevenaar and the surrounding area work more shifts in our outpatient clinic there, and we try to help more people at that location. We have moved care that can be postponed. And where possible we make video calls with patients.” Rijnstate has also looked into the use of e-bikes for staff and shuttle buses, but that is not yet an option.
At transport company Visser Duiven
Visser Duiven, which delivers pallets and packages throughout the Netherlands by truck within 24 hours, drives over or past the bridge every day. The family business (since 1919, 130 employees) is located right on the A12, about two kilometers from the IJsselbrug.
“The A12 is a lifeline for us,” says director Marcel Visser. On Thursday, on the second full day of work, traffic from Duiven to Arnhem was backed up from early in the morning – only at half past twelve did the delays decrease, before reoccurring in the early afternoon. Cars from the west on the A12 were hardly affected in the morning, but were delayed by 30 to 45 minutes in the afternoon. “We plan the journeys tightly, but due to the additional delays, the drivers are on the road longer.”
Drone photo of traffic jams due to the renovation of the concrete IJssel bridge on the A12 near Arnhem.
Photo SEM VAN DER WAL / ANP
At Visser Duiven this leads to an average delay of at least one hour per journey. With seventy journeys per day, this amounts to a cost of approximately 6,500 euros per day for Visser – more than 32,000 euros per week. Visser does not pass this on to his customers. “Diversion routes are not always a workable alternative. They are longer and also busier, because everyone diverts at the same time. You solve one problem and create another.” Some of the journeys can start earlier, but that will not solve the afternoon traffic jams. His planners also work extra hours, says Visser. “We check per day per trip whether the route needs to be adjusted.”
Visser was initially surprised by the alarming tone of Rijkswaterstaat in communicating about the work. “At first I thought it was a bit exaggerated. But now I see that it is better to make the consequences of such a major operation too heavy rather than too light. Only then will people get moving.”