IJtunnel

The southern entrance to the IJ tunnel

The IJtunnel is a transport link in Amsterdam . The city center is separated from the northern part, Amsterdam North , by the river IJ . In the last 40 years, the strong increase in motor vehicle traffic has made a tunnel connection necessary.

history

The area to the north of Amsterdam used to be an agricultural area that was allocated to the municipality of Amsterdam in 1877. As early as 1935, according to the general expansion plan ("Allgemeine Uitbreidungsplan", AUP) of the municipality, a decision was made to build a tunnel. Due to the ever increasing population growth and the associated housing construction at the beginning of the 20th century , the construction of a transport connection with the north of the city became necessary in the 1960s. The connection was regulated by ferry ships before the construction of the IJ tunnel . However, these could no longer cope with the growing vehicle traffic. In 1957 the construction of the tunnel began and on October 30, 1968 it was completed with a length of 1,682 meters and a clearance height of 4.08 meters.

Two buildings on the banks of the IJ extract the exhaust gases from the combustion engines of the vehicles and supply the tunnel with fresh air. The two-lane traffic is monitored with 22 surveillance cameras. In winter, heating pipes installed under the tunnel road protect the road from frost damage. A computer program regulates the lighting conditions so that a smooth transition from tunnel to daylight takes place in the entry and exit areas.

The “Nemo” science center was built over the southern entrance of the IJ tunnel.

literature

• K. Stiksma: Tunnels in the Netherlands, underground transport connections . Published by the Ministry of Rijkswaterstaat, The Hague 1987
• B. Jansen: De autotunnel onder het IJ . Ons Amsterdam, Volume 9, No. 2, February 1957, pp. 34–47

Web links

• "Documentatie IJ-Tunnel archief" . Documentation in the International Institute for Social History, Amsterdam.
• Google Earth en Streetview voor Nederland en Belgie . IJ tunnel, photo to enlarge.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ L. Schoewert: De IJtunnel ( Memento of the original from July 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . History of the IJ tunnel, with photos. Dutch, accessed February 5, 2010