Some €13,000 worth of traffic signs stolen during Amsterdam’s ring road festival
At least 13,000 euros worth of Dutch traffic signs were stolen during the Op de Ring festival on the A10 ring road in Amsterdam over the weekend, RTL reports. Dozens of small highway markers and at least one speed-limit sign were taken, many reportedly by partygoers.
Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch road authority, confirmed that approximately 30 hectometer posts and a 100-kilometer-per-hour speed sign went missing between Friday night and Sunday evening, following the high-profile highway celebration for Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary.
A camera vehicle from Rijkswaterstaat recorded the highway before and after the event. The footage from Sunday evening revealed the thefts. On social media, videos showed festivalgoers dancing with hectometer signs and posing with traffic signs taken from the A10.
"To remove such a sign, you have to come prepared. You need tools," Jacques Goddijn, director of HR Groep Streetcare, a company that manufactures traffic signs at four locations in the Netherlands, told RTL. He was not surprised. “I've been in a student house that had about 100 traffic signs. It’s a popular product, also for bars.”
Rijkswaterstaat said the cost of replacing the signs will be billed to the city of Amsterdam, which organized the event. “A single hectometer marker can cost 400 to 500 euros,” Goddijn explained to RTL. “They’re retro-reflective and double-sided. The reflective film alone can cost 250 euros per sign.”
According to Rijkswaterstaat, the damage estimate is still preliminary. “We’re still analyzing the footage captured by the camera vehicle on Sunday,” a spokesperson said. The agency added that a final settlement with the municipality is expected in mid-August.
New signs cannot be installed immediately. “It will take at least three weeks after ordering before they’re in place again,” Goddijn told RTL, citing both production time and the need for an installation permit from Rijkswaterstaat.
At the height of the festival on Saturday morning, the signs allegedly became a sought-after souvenir. “They’re unique and perfect for showing where you’ve been,” Goddijn told RTL. “Some of the blue signs over the highway are as large as 12 by 8 meters. People love standing underneath them as tiny humans.”
Rijkswaterstaat is still considering whether to file an official police report over the thefts. During the festival, the agency itself gifted specially selected hectometer signs to 20 couples who were married on the A10 during the celebration.
