Traffic on the A9 at Amstelveen will run in both directions through the new sunken trough starting Monday morning at 5:00. The change follows a complete weekend closure of the motorway between the Badhoevedorp and Holendrecht junctions that began on Friday evening.
Traffic heading toward Schiphol and Haarlem has already been using the northern section of the trench, roughly 12 metres below the level of the old road, since 27 July. Drivers heading toward Utrecht will now join them in the same concrete trough.
Temporary lanes and lower speed limits
Sharing a single trench means lanes will be narrower than usual, with three lanes open in each direction. The temporary speed limit has been set at 90 kilometres per hour rather than 100.
Contractor Veenix has begun removing the temporary bypass road to prepare for building the southern trough. Traffic bound for Utrecht will eventually move into that southern section once construction is finished.
More weekend closures planned this autumn
Building the second section requires shutting the motorway twice more this autumn. Full closures are scheduled for the weekend of 25 to 28 September and again from 23 to 26 October.
The sunken highway is part of a broader redesign of the A9. When the project began in 2000, Rijkswaterstaat expected completion within six years, but the timeline was later pushed to 2027 and is now projected to finish in 2029.
![Top [count] Travel Blogs to Follow - OnToplist.com](https://www.ontoplist.com/images/ontoplist31.png?id=6a8dcf108f478)