Dutch roads, railway networks and other infrastructure need urgent updating or the country’s safety and economy may suffer, the infrastructure ministry’s roads and waterways department and ProRail warned MPs on Monday.

The warning comes as the roads and waterways department (Rijkswaterstaat) published a listing of the work projected for 2026-2030 to tunnels, locks and bridges.

In an interview with the Telegraaf, waterways chief Martin Wijnen and ProRail boss John Voppen said the only way to keep the Netherlands moving is to boost the budget to renew crumbling infrastructure by at least an extra €2 billion a year, or up to 2% of GDP. That currently stands at 1.2%.

The reason why pull out of the Netherlands is often put down to red tape, Voppen told the paper but the lack of, or bad state, of the infrastructure is also a contributing factor, he said.

“Take the port of Rotterdam. The problem is not with the shipping side but with taking goods into the hinterland,” Voppen told the paper. Rail malfunctions at his own company, ProRail, have gone up by 21% since 2019.

According to Wijnen, his department is currently only patching up the defects instead of “tackling problems at the root”. Over 80 places in the Netherlands are subject to traffic limitations because they are unsafe.

The audit office has already calculated that another €34.5 billion is needed until 2038 for the roads and waterways department work while ProRail needs another €20 billion.