Where in Zuidas
Update, Wednesday 16 August 2023
The aerial photos have arrived! Be sure to take a look at the bottom of the page for a spectacular view of the work.
Putting the lid on it! The insertion of two incredibly heavy roof sections for the new passenger tunnel at Amsterdam Zuid station, the Brittenpassage, marked the successful completion of our eight-day period of works. By the early morning of Monday, 14 August 2023, traffic was racing across the brand-new surface of the A10 Zuid. Not long after, all of the trains were also running their normal schedule. It was an heroic task, completed with pride.
Eight days of work in two minutes
In the last two days, we have been preparing everything for the reopening of the railway tracks and the A10 Zuid. We put expansion joints in the asphalt to counteract shrinkage and expansion and deployed all available manpower to replace the last tiles as the railway platform was put back in place. As Monday morning broke, the red crosses above the road were deactivated, clearing the road for reopening.
Autumnal start
The week started in wet conditions, after we had removed the asphalt layer by layer and dug up the 100 m of the embankment where the A10 is. It soon turned into a pool of mud.
Work reunion
We were building on the work that we did last year, this time with as many as 200 colleagues working each day. This involved positioning the ‘slides’ to be used to move the roof sections onto the foundation piles we inserted into the ground last year. At the same time, we remove the final remnants of the old Amstelveen bend. Slowly and carefully, we did the preparatory work, ready to insert the roof sections.
Insertion of roof sections
Wednesday, 9 August was the big day: under the watching eye of the public and press, we pushed the roof sections into position at a speed of 8 m/h. Four hydraulic jacks pushed the two huge sections weighing 3 and 4 million kilos around 33 metres north to their position underneath the railway tracks and the A10. On Thursday, 10 August, the most important job during the eight-day closure of the A10 Zuid was completed.
Extra job: widening platform and slight bend in the A10
While we were at it, we took the time to do an extra job. In order to enable a growing group of passengers (currently 80,000 per day, but around 250,000-300,000 per day by 2030) to get on and off safely and comfortably, we also widened the railway platform in a single effort. To create room for that, we also added a slight bend to the A10.
The next step: excavating the Brittenpassage
With five of the six roof sections in position, our work is not yet over. To some extent, the real work is only now beginning: excavating the Brittenpassage underneath the roof sections. We will be starting that almost immediately. More news will follow soon.
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