All six plans for building a bicycle bridge from Amsterdam city centre to the northern banks of the IJ have been rejected by the infrastructure ministry’s roads and waterways department, the Parool reported on Tuesday.

All six proposals are ‘unsafe in nautical terms’ the paper quotes a letter from the department as saying. In addition, ‘building a bridge at these sites would mean intensive river traffic having to wait’ the letter said.

A council spokesman told the Parool that they had a letter about the designs ‘but it is not the case that the whole plan is being put to one side’.

‘We are in talks on how we can solve this,’ the spokesman said. The new coalition council administration included a commitment to build the bike bridge in its plans for the next four years.

There was strong local reaction to both the bridge and tunnel plans for the route in the eastern port area when it was first suggested last year. Some critics say the fixed link is unnecessary because of the new north-south metro.

Others say the Java island route is too far from the city centre and will be under-used. The bridge will also be opened at least three times an hour to allow shipping through and this will damage its usability, critics say.

The bridge proposal also makes it necessary to relocate the cruise ship terminal on the south side of the IJ. More than 100 cruise ships now call at the terminal every year and the bridge would make it impossible to turn around before exiting the area.