Brittenpassage heads towards completion

As we leave the construction site in Arnold Schönberglaan and enter the Brittenpassage, the change is immediately noticeable. Beneath our feet, what was previously a mountain of sand is now a smooth concrete floor – stretching almost all the way to the northern entrance of the new passenger tunnel at Amsterdam Zuid station. ‘We were able to pour a lot of concrete during the summer months. As a result, you can now actually make out the contours of the new passenger tunnel. But, on the north side, we’re still just at crawlspace level. Over there, we still need to pour the passageway floor’, points out Jeroen Monnik, construction manager for Zuidasdok. ‘Look: the shops will be here, the bicycle park there and the stairways you can see will soon lead to the railway platforms.’

Things were very different just two years ago: in our report at the time, we were full of admiration for the speed with which the Nieuw-Zuid Construction Consortium (BCNZ, made up of Mobilis, Boskalis and Van Gelder) had been able to excavate the Brittenpassage. Within the space of a few months, they removed 50,000 cubic metres of sand from underneath the A10, railway and metro tracks, after which endless amounts of sheet piling and foundation piles were inserted into the ground. Barely two years later, the Brittenpassage has nothing in common with the (sandy) construction pit of back then. Not only has a lot of concrete work been completed in recent times, major progress has also been made in fitting out the passageway.

The fitting out of the passageway can clearly be seen on the south side, where the entrances to the railway platforms are. ‘We’ve tiled the walls in natural stone and the prefab concrete stairways are already in position. These will also be clad with natural stone later, in order to create a unified look’, explains Monnik. Incidentally, above those entrances, we have also made incredible progress this year. We have built two completely new railway platforms above the Brittenpassage, and even added platform roofs to the most northerly ones (serving tracks 3 and 4). You may recall that massive operation: the 19 huge prefab components were brought from Almelo to Amsterdam using special transport, after which we hoisted them into position one by one by means of a gigantic crane on the A10 Zuid.

In mid-October 2025, we will also be lifting a new platform roof into position above the other railway platform, serving tracks 1 and 2. ‘That will be quickly followed by the outfitting of the north side of the passageway, where the entrances to the metro platforms are’, explains Monnik. ‘In the months ahead, we’ll also be lifting the concrete stairways into position, adding natural stone and completing work on the bicycle park.’ In the meantime, a tentative start has been made to preparations for the construction of the new metro platforms. They will be located between the two passenger tunnels at Amsterdam Zuid station. We will provide further details later this year, as soon as we start work completing the metro platforms.

With the railway platforms now built, the roof of the south side of the Brittenpassage is more or less water-tight. The same cannot be said of the north side. As we turn our heads upwards, we can see large open sections in the roof of the passageway between the metro tracks. This is because, unlike the railway platforms, the metro platforms will not be located above the passageway. ‘But don’t worry’, reassures Monnik. ‘There’ll also be a roof between the metro tracks. We’re currently in the process of drilling holes for a steel structure that we’ll be building in the months ahead. That structure will have panels of glass in it. They’ll be a bit like glass domes. They’ll allow a lot of light to penetrate the passageway. The roof here will also be water-tight by the end of this year.’

Between the inner ring road of the A10 Zuid and the most northerly metro track, we are doing something slightly different: building another extra roof section in situ. This is necessary in order to make it possible to move the motorway several metres to the south. This will create space for the construction of the northern tunnel of the A10 Zuid.