Women cyclists race through the Maas Delta Tunnel

New connection with two faces

Reinald Top (architect and partner at ZJA) says, “A road with two faces, the new Blankenburg connection will soon link the A20 at Vlaardingen with the A15 at Rozenburg. In the precious and fragile peat meadow landscape on the north side of the river Het Scheur, ZJA has concealed the motorway and the service buildings as far as possible in the landscape. Hidden in a sunken trough, the road enters a land tunnel under the Aalkeet polder before crossing Het Scheur in a deep tunnel. In the large-scale industrial port area on the other side of the river, the road can afford to be visible, and here a grassy mound and impressive flyovers dominate the scene.”

Extraordinary construction

The Blankenburg connection is needed to improve access to and from the port area, to enhance the ring road around Rotterdam and to provide traffic with an alternative route from north to south and vice versa. The new Maas Delta Tunnel, at 945 metres long in total, is an important part of this improved infrastructure.

The building of the tunnel was an extraordinary operation. In 2023 the tunnel was sunk in two parts. On 31 March the 185-metre-long tunnel element called Alara was sunk, and on 7 November it was joined on the bottom of Het Scheur by the element called Isabella (205 metres).

Never before have tunnel sections of this size been built and sunk into place in the Netherlands, let alone at a depth of 30 metres below NAP in a tidal river.

The plan is for the Blankenburg connection to be opened to traffic on the morning of Saturday 7 December.