Rail and shipping traffic around Utrecht was back to normal on Monday morning after being disrupted all weekend long as the new rail bridge over the Amsterdam-Rhine canal was transported down water and into place.

The 3,000 tonne bridge still has to be fixed to the rail infrastructure over the canal and will be operational next April.

The new 170-metre-long bridge was placed between the existing rail bridge and the bridge connecting the A2 motorway with Utrecht’s western suburbs. Rail and road traffic on the existing bridges will be closed for seven months. When it is open, the new rail bridge will double the number of tracks to four.

The sluice gates at Wijk-bij-Duurstede were opened over the weekend to raise the water level in the Amsterdam-Rhine canal by 10 cm to enable the float-on operation.