The new A16 motorway near Rotterdam opened to southbound traffic at 4 a.m. on Monday after six years of construction, Rijkswaterstaat said.
Traffic toward Delft and The Hague will not open for three weeks. The highway is scheduled to open northbound on Monday, Oct. 27, at 5 a.m. Friday evening both the A13 and A16 northbound will close due to the work. The N209 in the direction of Rotterdam The Hague Airport will also be closed then.
Inauguration and local resident
Outgoing Minister Robert Tieman (Infrastructure) and Director-General Martin Wijnen of Rijkswaterstaat inaugurated the new connection early Monday.
They were accompanied by Nel Overes, who has lived next to the works for the past six years. The 90-year-old Rotterdam resident drove over the new A16 and through the Rottemerentunnel in a vintage car from the year she was born.
The new 11-kilometer stretch of highway runs toward Dordrecht and Breda. Final work on the A16 will be completed in the coming weeks.
