The Roertunnel is a 2.45 km long land tunnel in Roermond

Roermond

Roermond is a city, a municipality, and a diocese in the southeastern part of the Netherlands.The city of Roermond is a historically important town, on the lower Roer at the east bank of the Meuse river. It received city rights in 1231...

, Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. Currently it is the longest land tunnel for road traffic in the Netherlands and upon final completion, it will be compliant to the 2014 safety standard for tunnels in the Netherlands.

The tunnel is a part of the A73-south highway, connecting the A73-north in Venlo

Venlo

Venlo is a municipality and a city in the southeastern Netherlands, next to the German border. It is situated in the province of Limburg.In 2001, the municipalities of Belfeld and Tegelen were merged into the municipality of Venlo. Tegelen was originally part of the Duchy of Jülich centuries ago,...

 to the A2 near Echt

Echt-Susteren

Echt-Susteren is a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. Echt-Susteren was created in 2003 by merging the former municipalities of Echt and Susteren....

. Since the highway is directly in the path of urban and protected environmental areas in Roermond, the tunnel has been constructed to lead the traffic underneath East Roermond's urban area, the Roerdal environmental protected zone, and the Roer river. The tunnel consists of three tubes. One tube contains the northbound traffic, one tube contains the southbound traffic and a tube in the middle functions as an emergency escape route. The maximum speed inside the tunnels is 100 km/h.

A little north of the Roertunnel, a sister tunnel, The Swalmentunnel, has been constructed according to the same construction principles. That tunnel measures 400m in length and leads underneath the urban area of Swalmen, a village in the municipality of Roermond.

Once the tunnel is fully opened, one of the entry ramps in Roermond will have to be redesigned, because according to safety regulations the final entry on the highway must be 300m ahead of the tube of a tunnel, and the entry to the southbound tube in the Roertunnel ends only a few meters ahead of the tunnel. The plan is to redirect all highway traffic to the left lane before entering the tunnel, so that all traffic on the entry ramp can use the right lane for the complete length of the tunnel before merging together with the rest of the traffic upon exit of the tunnel.

Construction Difficulties

The estimated opening on January 1, 2008, was delayed as the involved parties constructing the tunnel underestimated the technical challenge. A mere 50 security systems had been installed in the tunnel. The tunnel opened partially (weekdays only) in February 2008 with only 1 carriageway per direction opened and a speed limit of 70 km/h. However on the first operating day on February 18, 2008, long traffic-jams were caused by technical problems in the tunnels and in the 10 days after opening, 11 closures had occurred in both tunnels causing many traffic problems. Rijkswaterstaat had to postpone the final opening and construction of the tunnel due to the many malfunctions and closures of the tunnel. Today, the tunnels are still only partially opened awaiting the final test phase for final opening. This final stage will cause a 9 week closure of the tunnel for extensive testing of all safety measures. The closure was scheduled to take place on January 5 2009 but has been postponed.

External links

• Official site of Rijkswaterstaat on the construction of the A73 and the tunnels