Work on the A10 in full swing, plenty of disruption

The 5,000 cubic metres of sand (enough to fill two Olympic swimming pools) turned out not to be enough, which meant more sand – and therefore more time – was needed to build the plateau. Our construction workers had to race against the clock to get everything done, and were successful. From the plateau, we have now been able to build a construction pit and insert piles into the ground. In the days ahead, these will be poured full of concrete, enabling us to build footings (concrete foundation structures) on top of the piles for the supports. When this work has been completed, we will remove the sand plateau and repair the road to enable it to be open to traffic on time.

We inserted a lot of sheet piles into the ground next to the Infinity building, also referred to as ‘The Shoe’ (‘De Schoen’). This created a sheet pile wall between Jachthavenweg and the A10 Zuid. The work required heavy-duty equipment. As a result, local residents experienced some noise disruption. The sheet piling work is now completed.

At Amsterdam Zuid station, we actually removed a lot of soil and this also led to a surprise. The Nieuw-Zuid construction consortium (Mobilis, Boskalis and Van Gelder) first removed the A10 Zuid above the existing passenger tunnel in order to be able to excavate the embankment underneath it. This work is being done in order to build logistics access points for heavy-duty machinery to be used for the future renovation of the Minervapassage. Although we know that the dike embankment underneath the A10 is partly made of rubble, we found much more of it than we expected and in much larger chunks. Removing it (including grinding up pieces of concrete) caused major delays. Thanks to the use of extra equipment later that week, it was easily possible to make up for this setback.

Then came the heatwave of course. On the construction site, the heat can feel even more extreme – after all, construction workers wear protective clothing and work using machinery that can become very hot. Of course, we take plenty of precautions to keep conditions as pleasant as possible: from creating shady places to providing extra water, sunscreen and ice creams. Despite the paralysing heat, the hard work continued, although a sigh of relief could be heard when the cooling rain finally arrived on Wednesday.

At the same time, road users struggled with traffic disruption on the south side of Amsterdam. Especially during the evening rush hour, the predicted maximum 60 minutes of extra journey time was quickly reached. Although various measures are taken to prevent this, it is sometimes a case of force majeure. There were, for example, several traffic collisions on key diversion routes, such as the A9. Some of the measures we take include setting up temporary diversions and deploying traffic controllers. We call on car drivers to avoid the congestion. If possible, people should work at home or use public transport. This will help to ensure that the south side of Amsterdam remains accessible to the emergency services and for people who have no alternative to the car. The traffic alerts from Ask&GO travel advice service will keep you updated on the latest key developments.