EIB provides EUR 350 million to improve highway in Netherlands

The EIB loan to the project benefits from the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), a key element of the Investment Plan for Europe, also known as the Juncker Plan.

The European Investment Bank has agreed to provide ca. EUR 350 million to support the improvement of a section of the A9 highway near Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The EIB loan to the project benefits from the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), a key element of the Investment Plan for Europe, also known as the Juncker Plan. The project is part of the core TEN-T network, on the North Sea-Baltic corridor.

The project is set to unlock traffic on the Schiphol-Amsterdam-Almere (SAA) corridor, designed to improve connections between Schiphol airport, the city of Amsterdam and the city of Almere, a major residential area for commuters working in Amsterdam. The SAA-programme includes the upgrade of a total of 65km of motorways with sections of the A9, “A1/A6” and A6 motorways, all previously supported by the EIB. Works on the A9 BaHo section are expected to commence in early 2020.

On a technical level, the project entails the widening (from 3 to 4 lanes) of an 11km stretch of motorway, including the upgrading of bridges on ten river crossings. To reduce the impact of the road traffic on residents in the area, sound barriers will be placed and a 1.3 km stretch will be “submerged” as seen from ground level. This will reduce the visual impact, the noise and also improve the connectivity of the communities on both sides of the highway. The project is designed as a 14-year Design-Build-Finance-Maintain (DBFM), availability-based, PPP concession.