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BENELUXTUNNEL

RIJKSWATERSTAAT; ZWARTS & JANSMA, 1997-2002, Beneluxtunnel, Rotterdam

ARCHITECT(URAL OFFICE):
Rijkswaterstaat
Zwarts & Jansma

ARTIST:
Jules Deelder

ARCHITECT(URAL OFFICE):
Moshé Zwarts
Rein Jansma

BUILDING TYPE:
Civil engineering works

Rotterdamse Ruit (Rotterdam diamond) is a tangential highway structure around Rotterdam's central city that crystallized between 1955 and 1975. Two vital river crossings - the https://www.architectureguide.nl/project/item/prj_id/1844" class="inline_link">Van Brienenoord Bridge (1965) in the east and the Benelux Tunnel (1967) in the west - complete the circuit of the more than 40 kilometre long network. At the end of the 1990s the Benelux Tunnel was enlarged with an additional motorway lane, a metro tube and a bicycle tunnel. A central reversible flow lane can be brought into operation to ease the flow in the busy direction. The cycle tunnel has the poem 'Ari' by the Rotterdam author Jules Deelder written in tiles over its full length. This 900 metre long cycle tunnel is less ponderous than its counterpart in the https://www.architectureguide.nl/project/item/prj_id/210" class="inline_link">Maas Tunnel and has a glazed lift, though both have long escalators and tiled walls.