The Netherlands’ most expensive road project opens

A new stretch of the A5 motorway and new tunnel under Amsterdam’s IJ waterway opened on Monday, at a cost of €160m per kilometre, the Financieele Dagblad reports.

The stretch of road and tunnel are the most expensive in Dutch history, with a total bill of over €2bn, the paper says. Normally, the transport ministry prices roads at between €10m and €50m a kilometre.

Since the A5/Coen tunnel road project was initiated, all similar road projects have to undergo a proper cost benefit analysis to see if they are financially worth it, the FD points out.

The aim of this project was to reduce traffic pressure on the original Coen tunnel – a notorious traffic blackspot – and Amsterdam ring road congestion.

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