Onwards with Zuidasdok!

Reinald Top (architect and partner at ZJA) says, “We are extremely pleased that ZJA Architects & Engineers, as a strategic partner of IBZ along with Arcadis, Witteveen+Bos, ARUP, Team V Architectuur and SBE, will be able to continue working on Zuidasdok within a new framework agreement. We have been working on this complex assignment since 2016.

It includes the complete regeneration and expansion of the existing station, which is wedged between the motorway and the Zuidas, the widening and putting into a tunnel of parts of the A10 Zuid, and the fitting of a large number of new functions into an already busy area. With green as the basis for our architectonic design, Zuidasdok will not only contribute to improved traffic flows but make an essential contribution to a vibrant and liveable city.”

Easily accessible top international location

Putting the A10 Zuid into a tunnel frees up space for a high-quality transport hub of international stature. The Amsterdam Zuid railway station is undergoing an impressive transformation and will soon be the vibrant heart of the Zuidas, providing a fully viable alternative to the car, without becoming a troublesome obstacle for the surrounding residential districts.

Train, metro, tram, bus and bicycles all come together here. Just outside the station, the design includes new tram and bus stops, taxi ranks and a Kiss & Ride zone, while indoors there will be several bicycle storage areas with room for a total of 6,500 bikes. The existing station entrance, the Minervapassage, is being widened and will soon form an important new connection between different parts of the city. A new entrance has been designed too, called the Brittenpassage.

Connecting, accommodating, greening, and increasing sustainability

With the area’s green history as inspiration for the architectonic design, more than 100,000 square metres of public space have been added aboveground, including a third railway platform and car-free areas in which to spend time, where it is pleasant to shop, wander and linger.

And because the tangle of motorway exits and entrances will soon disappear from sight, Zuidasdok will make this area part of a green corridor between the ‘green wedges’ at the Nieuwe Meer and at the bend in the River Amstel. The entire stretch from Zorgvlied to the Beatrixpark will become one continual green zone, bringing greenery into the city and city-dwellers into the greenery.

Projects in progress

In 2018 work began on the project to regenerate the Amsterdam Zuid railway station and in late 2022 the project to reconstruct the De Nieuwe Meer intersection received all the necessary permits. Recently the contract for the building of the one-kilometre A10 Zuid tunnel was definitively awarded to Van Hattum and Blankevoort, part of VolkerWessels Infra, making it the third project in the Zuidasdok programme to enter the implementation phase.

Zuidasdok is a joint programme by the central government, the Province of Noord-Holland, Amsterdam Regional Transport (Vervoerregio Amsterdam) and the City of Amsterdam. The executive organizations for Zuidasdok are the Public Works Department (Rijkswaterstaat), ProRail and the City of Amsterdam. The engineering services that have been procured are for all parts of the project as a whole.