The rush hour lane on the A28 near Zwolle has been closed all week. Road users therefore regularly experience delays. Bad news: this could also take a while.
Anton van Noorel
The problems occur from Spoolderplein, near Zwolle-Zuid, to past the Zwolle Centrum exit. ‘There is damage over a length of more than 5 meters and the asphalt around it is crumbling. The damage creates an unsafe traffic situation, requiring a lane closure,” says Rijkswaterstaat.
For safety reasons
The rush-hour lane will be closed until the damage has been repaired. “For safety reasons, you cannot close a section of 5 meters. That is not possible at these speeds. You need time to merge in and out. Moreover, we do not want users to change lanes unnecessarily,” says spokesperson Jenneke Blok of Rijkswaterstaat.
As a result, northbound traffic can now travel in two lanes instead of three. The left lane, the rush-hour lane, is closed. In any case, it already is since last weekend the case. After the damage has been repaired, the rush-hour lane will be open again.
It is a combination of factors. On the one hand, there is wear and tear on old asphalt that needs to be replaced. In addition, there are old repairs of frost damage that have now also reached the end of their lifespan.
Direct repair is not an option. “This is one in a list of many in the region. It is now a lot in a short time,” says Blok.
Recovery time still unknown
Rijkswaterstaat will discuss the planning of the A28 this Friday and aims to restore the highway as quickly as possible, but cannot yet indicate when that will be.
Until then, the rush-hour lane at Zwolle will not be used. “I really don’t dare say anything about the planning. In this case it concerns a permanent repair, not a temporary one,” says Blok.
Due to the amount of work on the road network, Rijkswaterstaat now looks at each situation on a case-by-case basis to determine whether repairs need to be carried out urgently or whether they need to be tackled in a different way. For example, as part of already planned maintenance work: ‘Unfortunately, we cannot repair everything immediately at the moment.’
Rijkswaterstaat expects that it will remain busy on the A28 near Zwolle for a while: ‘Road users are particularly affected by this during the evening rush hour. We try to inform road users as well as possible so that they can prepare and adjust the travel time if necessary.’
