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A10 Zuid closed and no trains to Amsterdam Zuid station again this weekend

Although you will still be able to catch the last train on Friday evening, it will no longer be possible to travel via RAI and Zuid stations for the whole weekend after that. Further work is being carried out on the foundations for the extra passageway under Amsterdam Zuid station: the Brittenpassage.

There have been setbacks

All of the weekend work so far has been in preparation for inserting the deck covering the new passageway for Amsterdam Zuid station. Although a great deal of work has been completed, there have also been setbacks. This means that not all of the scheduled work has been completed as planned. As a result, it is now clear that the foundations for both the deck covering the future Brittenpassage and the Vivaldi cyclists and pedestrians’ tunnel will not be completed in time to enable positioning during the Whit weekend.

The fourth weekend

This fourth weekend will mainly be used to continue the foundation work. We will be doing more pile-driving. Once in place, the piles will be reinforced and filled with concrete to give them extra strength in order to be able to bear the new roof section. Before we reach that stage, construction consortium ZuidPlus will still need to dig out some of the soil around the piles, shorten the piles and install foundation blocks 10 m long and 8 m wide. The new roof section will then ultimately rest of these so-called abutments. ZuidPlus will also take advantage of this weekend’s closure of the A10 to remove tree stumps from the ground in the verges and embankments left over from previously-felled trees.

The last weekend

Whit weekend is the last of five weekends for which permission for railway and motorway closures was applied for a long time ago. It is necessary to apply well in advance whenever the railway is to be taken out of action. This is because ProRail has to rearrange the timetable and Dutch Railways (NS) has to juggle the use of rolling stock and staff within the schedules. This is a major task for the planners at ProRail and NS, because everything on the railway network is intricately linked – especially on the very busy railway that runs through Zuidas. This same complexity also applies for the roads in and around Amsterdam. Putting the roof section of the Brittenpassage into position cannot simply be postponed by a week. We are currently consulting with ProRail, NS and Rijkswaterstaat to find out when it will be possible. We will provide more information as soon as it is known.

Check before setting out

If you are planning to travel this weekend, make sure you check your route before setting out. The closure of the A4 and A10 Zuid from the Badhoevedorp junction is likely to cause delays and there are also numerous events in the Amsterdam area that will create congestion. On Saturday and Sunday, the Amsterdam Arena is expecting around 65,000 people to come to see the Toppers, there are performances by the Eagles and Zsa Zsa Sul in the Ziggo Dome and AFAS Live and there is a festival on Saturday in the Amsterdamse Bos.

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