Traffic nightmare coming to Amsterdam: A10 Zuid closed for 11 days

Amsterdam is in for eleven days of a traffic mess starting in just over two weeks' time. At that time, the A10 Zuid and part of the A4 towards the Amstel interchange will close for roadworks. Commuters can expect between 30 and 60 minutes of extra travel time over the weekends and over an hour on weekdays, AT5 reports.

The highways are closing so that work can continue on the Zuidasdok project. During the closure, construction consortium Nieuw-Zuid will begin foundation work on a new corridor for Station Zuid, which will allow the station to expand. The consortium includes Mobilis, Boskalis, and Van Gelder.

The A4 will close at the Badhoevedorp junction on Friday evening, July 22. "Normally, over 9,000 cars per hour drive in one direction here, which means that it cannot happen without hindrance," traffic manager Niels van den Brink said to the broadcaster.

The Amsterdam authorities are taking measures to limit the traffic issues as much as possible. The city will deploy 300 yellow sign boards, over 1,000 traffic cones, 11 extra traffic cameras, 45 traffic controllers, six to eight traffic cops, and three recovery companies on standby for accidents on the A9.

The city's bridges will also open less often to discourage traffic diverting via Hoofddorpplein, Amstelveenseweg, and Zeilstraat, for example.

Portions of the A10 and A4 closed in November 2019 when a new roof section was moved into place over another new passenger corridor. That section weighed about three million kilograms, and required the removal of road surface and rail infrastructure in order to move the rooftop into place.