Commuters having to deal with traffic on the A4 highway, will have to do so more often and for longer in the coming decade. The widening of the highway that connects Amsterdam and The Hague will only start in 2026, and will not be completed until 2030, the Telegraaf reports. .
"That means another ten years of driving bumper to bumper and no prospect of improvement. In fact, it will only get worse," Frits van Bruggen, director of travelers' association ANWB, said to the newspaper.
Multiple accidents occurred in the Rotterdam region on Monday morning as a result of icy and slippery roads. The accidents caused delays for motorists in the morning rush hour.
Meteorological institute KNMI issued a code yellow slippery roads warning for Gelderland and Noord-Brabant on Monday morning. Travelers' association ANWB warned that Gelderland, Utrecht and Noord-Brabant can expect issues. But the problems extended beyond those provinces.
The construction work done in Amsterdam Zuidas over the weekend was completed during the early hours of Monday morning. Parts of the A10 and A4 highways that were closed for the work, reopened slightly earlier than the planned 5:00 a.m. on Monday.
Amsterdam residents and other people traveling through the city are advised to avoid the Amsterdam Zuidas from Thursday night through Monday morning. The installation of a massive rooftop for the new passenger tunnel from Amsterdam Zuid station across the A10 South and the railway means that car and truck access will be severely limited during the 79-hour period, with no trains running at the area's train stations on Friday and Saturday.
A 13-year-old girl from Amsterdam is facing some trouble from her parents and the police on Tuesday. After her father reported her missing on Monday evening, the police found her driving her parents' car on the A4 highway, NOS reports.
While searching for the missing child, police officers noticed an inexperienced driver swerving across the A4 highway near Hoofddorp. "Between 90 and 120 kilometers per hour", a police spokesperson said to NOS.
Rotterdam will get a new bank crossing connection with a highway and public transit to relieve the increasing traffic on the A16 highway, Minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen of Infrastructure, the province of Zuid-Holland, the municipalities of Rotterdam and The Hague, and the surrounding municipalities agreed, NOS reports.
A large shipment of stem cells will be slowly and carefully transported from Leiden to Amsterdam, under police escort, on Wednesday. This is expected to cause some inconvenience for motorists on the A4 highway, where at least one lane will be closed, a spokesperson for blood bank Sanquin told NU.nl.
The transport will start around noon, the spokesperson said.
The A4 highway from Amsterdam to The Hague is closed at Nieuw-Vennep due to a serious accident involving a truck and a passenger car. Emergency services are at the scene, NOS reports.
A person is stuck in one of the vehicles. There is also a lot of debris on the road.
Those who want to travel to The Hague are advised to detour through Utrecht, via the A9, A2 and A12.
In the first six months of 2018 traffic congestion on Dutch roads increased by approximately 20 percent compared to the same period last year, the ANWB announced. In the months of March April and May there were a lot more traffic jams and rush hour records were broken time and again, RTL Nieuws reports.
The increased traffic was particularly noticeable at the biggest bottlenecks on the Dutch road network, especially on the A4 from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, the A20 from Hoek van Holland to Gouda, and the A27 from Utrecht to Breda.
The police fired warning shots during a confrontation with an unknown number of suspects on the parking lot of a retirement home on Nigtevechthof in Amsterdam Zuidoost on Sunday night. Four suspects were arrested after a chase. No one was injured, the police said on Twitter.
Local residents called the police to report shots fired around 10:00 p.m. Witnesses told AT5 that a total of eight shots were fired, six of which happened in quick succession. The police can not yet say whether there was an actual shooting.
Last year over a million fines were issued to drivers speeding on the A2 and A12 highways between Amsterdam and Utrecht, according to an overview from the Ministry of Justice and Security, NOS reports.
Motorists were 'flashed' on the A2 between Amsterdam and Utrecht 650 thousand times, and on the A12 near Utrecht over 413 thousand times. Third place for most speeding tickets went to the A4 at Leidschendam, where speeding cameras caught motorists driving too fast 250 thousand times.
The A4 highway is closed in both directions near Bergen op Zoom due to a burning truck. The truck was transporting frying fat when it caught fire.
The road at the Zoomland junction is covered in grease and extinguishing water. The road will be closed in both directions until the fire is extinguished and the road surface has been cleaned. This is expected to take until 1:00 p.m., according to broadcaster NOS.
People traveling to Rotterdam and Antwerp can detour through Breda.
After years of significant increases, the levels of traffic jams in the Netherlands remained almost stable this year. The level of traffic jams is calculated by multiplying the length of the traffic jam with its time duration, according to NOS. Last year this increased by 12 percent compared to 2015. This year it increased by only 0.6 percent, the broadcaster reports.
Technicians are still busy replacing cables in the Schiphol tunnel that were damaged by fire on Monday. Only two of the six lanes are open to motorists, which means traffic delays on the A4 from Amsterdam to The Hague during rush hour on Thursday morning, NOS reports.
The Schiphol tunnel is partially open to motorists again after being completely closed since Monday afternoon. Two lanes will be open during rush hour for motorists who want to take the A4 from Amsterdam, the Dutch public works department Rijkswaterstaat announced on Wednesday morning, AD reports.
A high speed police chase on the A4 and A13 that reached speeds over 200 kilometers per hour, ended in Delft with the suspects' car on its roof against the railing of a building site. No one was injured. Three suspects were arrested, NU.nl reports.
The police spotted the car just after midnight on the highway. It had stolen number plates. The police signaled the driver to stop. Initially the driver seemed to be following instructions, but then suddenly sped off. The police gave chase.
Dutch motorists spent more time in traffic more frequently in 2016, with a 12 percent increase in traffic severity, NOS reports based on figures from the ANWB. Traffic is expected to increase further in the coming years.
According to the broadcaster, the increase in traffic severity - the length of the traffic jam times its duration - has to do with the improving economy. The increase started in 2014, when the economy started picking up after the financial crisis. In 2015 traffic severity increased by 20 percent.
The 41-year-old man arrested on the A4 after making a comment about a bomb on a bus to Schiphol on Monday, was released after questioning. He is still suspected of threatening behavior, the police said on Tuesday.
A man was arrested on the A4 highway towards Schiphol on Monday morning for making a bomb threat on a tour bus, the police said in a statement.
The A4 towards Schiphol is currently closed down at the Nieuw-Sloten off-ramp near Amsterdam due to a suspicious situation involving a tour bus. Camera footage from traffic information service VID shows a tour bus standing still on the highway. A man stands in front of the bus with his hands up as a SWAT team approaches with guns drawn.
The first part of the new A9 near Badhoevedorp is opening at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, according to the Rijkswaterstaat. The part opening is a new A9 connection at the Raasdorp junction to the A4 in the direction of Amsterdam.
Schiphol airport wants to expand even more and is considering opening a second location in Haarlemmermeer to relieve some pressure on Schiphol Center
Four people and a dog were injured in a 12-car pileup at the Amsterdam Sloten exit on the A4 on Sunday afternoon. The injured people were taken to a hospital and the dog to a veterinary clinic
With more than 900 accidents last year, the Amsterdam ring road A10 is the most dangerous highway in the Netherlands, according to a study done by traffic information service VID.
