Motorists warned to avoid Utrecht roads as 925 km of traffic piles up throughout NL
Motorists warned to avoid Utrecht roads as 925 km of traffic piles up throughout NL
The winter weather has resulted in a busy rush hour on Monday morning. At 8:33 a.m., the ANWB reported 108 traffic jams covering 925 kilometers of Dutch roads. The Rijkswaterstaat has urged motorists in the Utrecht region to stay off the roads due to snowfall and increasing traffic. The weather also disrupted air traffic, with Schiphol reporting 441 canceled flights.
According to the Rijkswaterstaat, this morning is officially the busiest morning rush hour since December 2024. “We just saw a peak of 690 kilometers [in traffic jams on the highways]. For comparison, in 2025, we didn’t see a morning rush hour busier than 650 kilometers,” the public works department said.
The situation is particularly dire in the Utrecht region. “We’re seeing the highways becoming congested around Utrecht. Snow showers are now moving through, making the roads impassable and further increasing traffic jams,” the Rijkswaterstaat said. “We advise avoiding the roads in the Utrecht region during the entire morning rush hour, if possible.”
The Rijkswaterstaat only monitors traffic on the Dutch highways. The travelers’ organization ANWB keeps an eye on all roads in the Netherlands. At 8:26 a.m., the ANWB reported traffic jams on 32 roads in the Utrecht region, with delays ranging from a few minutes to approaching two hours.
Traffic was reportedly also at a standstill in a major delay on the A7 from Noord-Holland towards Groningen, beginning at the Afsluitdijk and continuing through Friesland
The country’s fleet of grit trucks spread over 5.3 million kilograms on Dutch highways between 7 p.m. on Sunday and 8:30 a.m. on Monday. The trucks drove over 64,000 kilograms during that period of time, according to Rijkswaterstaat.
Airlines at Schiphol Airport cancelled 192 departures and 249 inbound flights, with dozens more facing delays, as air traffic controllers faced “a significant outbound bottleneck” due to “snow and de-icing,” and were forced to reduce the rate of arriving flights to manage the problem, according to Eurocontrol.
A couple of early departures at Eindhoven Airport were delayed, each by less than half an hour, but the first five flights were delayed at the country’s third-largest airfield, Rotterdam The Hague Airport. The early departures were delayed by an average of just under an hour.
Train traffic was also disrupted by the winter weather. NS reported 18 disruptions on the railway and urged travelers to check their travel planner before leaving for the station.
The KNMI expanded its code orange weather warning for icy roads to eight provinces, now also including Zeeland. “In the west, central, and north, 2 to 4 centimeters of snow is possible this morning, with localized 5 to 8 centimeters,” the KNMI warned. The rest of the country is covered by a code yellow warning. “Traffic should expect slippery conditions due to snow and icy wet roads.”
The meteorological institute expects to lift the code orange warning around noon on Monday. The code yellow warning, covering the entire country, will likely be in place until at least midday Wednesday.
