The history of Zuidas

The origins of Zuidas are all about accessibility. Just as in the past, the Canal Belt developed on the River IJ because it was the most accessible place, so Zuidas came about because of its location between Schiphol and the city centre.

It actually all started with the advent of the train. In 1839, the first railway line in the Netherlands was built, running from Amsterdam to Haarlem. This was followed four years later by a railway from Amsterdam to Utrecht. Each line had its own station and, twenty years later, the idea of connecting them was suggested. The first plan dating from 1867 put a ‘Central Station’ on the southern side of the city (south of Frederiksplein). Two years later, Amsterdam City Council eventually opted to site the Central Station on the banks of the River IJ, close to Damrak.

In early 1900, new plans emerged for a ‘Zuiderstation’, a station in the south. In 1914, architect Berlage presented his Plan Zuid (“South Plan”). It was based on three pillars: firstly, the existing Vondelpark and Museum Quarter, secondly, a connection to the east via a bridge (later known as Berlage bridge) and, thirdly, a southern station (Zuiderstation), extending the north-south axis (later Minervalaan). All of these elements were connected together by wide avenues. Construction work started on Plan Zuid in 1911, reaching as far as the Zuideramstel canal.

In 1921 construction work began on the Ringspoordijk to the east and south of Amsterdam. This railway embankment was intended to connect the tracks to Haarlem and Utrecht, but was never completed because of the 1930s crisis and World War II that followed it. Cornelis van Eesteren, who was head of urban development in the Amsterdam Public Works department, came up with the General Expansion Plan (Algemeen Uitbreidingsplan) for the city in 1934. This would form the basis for the city’s expansion up to 2000. Work started on it in 1951. The Prinses Irene district in Zuid was built between 1954 and 1958, followed by Buitenveldert between 1958 and 1966.

The Southern Promenade (Zuidelijke Wandelweg) ran between the Prinses Irene district and Buitenveldert forming the dividing line between two areas of reclaimed land with a height difference of 1.5 m. Bordered by poplars and willows, this path was a popular place for the people of Amsterdam to escape the city, over 40 years ago. There was good reason why it was known locally as Lovers’ Lane. During the construction of Buitenveldert, it was engulfed by sand. The first building to emerge in this area was the Academic Hospital on De Boelelaan in 1961, followed by the RAI Exhibition Centre’s Europa Hall in 1961. A small section of the Southern Promenade still remains to this day (south of the Mirandabad swimming pool in the Rivierenbuurt district). The other section of it was replaced by the A10 Zuid, which opened in 1981.

From the 1980s onwards, the City of Amsterdam started to consider the options for a prime location for business. The preference was for the southern banks of the River IJ. Starting in the early 1990s, studies were conducted to explore the possibility of accommodating a specific part of the offices market along the motorway between Schiphol and Amsterdam Zuid-Oost (South-East). The working title for this area was ‘Zuid-as’ or ‘Southern Axis’. The section between Schinkel and Amstel, now called ‘Zuidas’, was then still known as ‘the centre of the Zuid-as’. The NMB Bank opened its headquarters here in 1974, followed by the World Trade Center in 1985.

From 1994, Amsterdam had a change of strategy. It began to focus on making optimum use of both the specific qualities of the banks of the River IJ (mainly pointing towards the city centre) and Zuidas, the prime location for business. The coalition agreement for the period 1994-1998 describes a plan that was intended to form the basis for Zuidas’ development. This was because private parties had withdrawn from development of the banks of the IJ but still showed an interest in Zuidas as a location for development and to set up business. This was mainly due to the fact that Zuidas was much more accessible than the banks of the IJ. In the early 1990s, ABN AMRO decided to move its headquarters from the city to Zuidas. Construction began on the prestigious headquarters in 1996 and work was completed in 1999.

But the situation was soon to see a disastrous turn. Because of the credit crisis, private parties began questioning the financial feasibility of the dock model from 2008. In response, the government appointed a representative at the end of 2008 charged with identifying a feasible solution for Zuidas. The crisis also triggered a fall in the value of land. In 2012, a new variation of the plan was chosen in which only the A10 goes underground and Zuid station is renovated above ground: the Zuidasdok.

• Expansion of the capacity of the A10 and separation of through-traffic from local traffic, from the De Nieuwe Meer junction all the way to the Amstel junction;
• Sustainable integration of the road infrastructure by diverting the A10 underground in the central zone of Zuidas, creating space for the public transport tunnel and enhancing the environment at the centre of Zuidas;
• Development of a state-of-the-art public transport terminal for railway and metro, enabling railway traffic to grow and setting space aside for a fifth and sixth track with a third platform for domestic high-speed trains and the construction of various facilities to enable rolling stock to change direction.
• Optimum integration of regional and urban public transport in the public transport terminal, including two tracks to accommodate the North/South metro line (metro 52).

In 2017, the ZuidPlus construction consortium won the tender for the development of Zuidasdok. This consortium consisted of the Dutch company Heijmans, American Fluor and German Hochtief. ZuidPlus started by devising an integrated preliminary design for the whole project, in order to rule out any surprises in the realisation phase as far as possible. However, drawing up this integrated preliminary design proved significantly more complex than originally thought. After two years, it had not been completed to the satisfaction of the commissioning authority. In order to prevent further delays, it was decided to bring forward the realisation of the second passenger tunnel for Amsterdam Zuid station, the Brittenpassage. The first works started in 2018. In response to the slow and difficult progress in all other parts of the project, ZuidPlus temporarily slimmed down its own organisation in 2019. A year later, the Zuidasdok commissioning authorities decided to terminate the contract with ZuidPlus and to retender the rest of the work in ‘subsidiary packages’. The first of these – made up of the first two phases of the regeneration of Amsterdam Zuid station – was also the first to be put out to tender again, in October 2020. The insertion into position of two sections of the roof for the Brittenpassage in August 2021 brought an end to the work by ZuidPlus.

In June 2021, the tender procedure for the ‘De Nieuwe Meer junction reconstruction’ project was launched. This involves the widening of the A10 Zuid from the junction to the western tunnel entrances. In November 2022, the contract was awarded to TriAX, made up of Besix, Dura Vermeer and Heijmans. The aim of the De Nieuwe Meer junction project is to improve traffic flow and make the motorway safer (less lane-hopping). Local traffic and through-traffic will be separated from each other at an earlier stage, on the A4 and the A10 West.

July 2023 also saw the launch of the tender procedure for the Tunnel project, which will divert the A10 Zuid underground next to Amsterdam Zuid station. This is in order to create space for the public transport hub, add two new railway tracks to the station for international railway traffic and improve spatial quality at the heart of Zuidas.

In the meantime, financial setbacks continued to cause problems for the programme. The explosive increase in construction costs in particular led to a rise in the overall costs. In November 2022, central government and the region promised to provide additional resources in the form of a financial package worth €5.4 billion intended to extend the North/South metro line to Schiphol airport, completing the metro ring by extending the metro track between Isolatorweg (close to Sloterdijk) and €1.5 billion for Zuidasdok. A shortfall reported by Zuidasdok in December 2023 led in June 2024 to a reconfirmation of the importance of Zuidasdok, instructions to make cutbacks and to go ahead with the tender procedure for the Tunnel project, with the proviso that the contract for the realisation of the northern tunnel could be awarded when budget became available for it. At the end of July 2024, the contract for the Tunnel project was awarded to Van Hattum and Blankevoort.