The A12 is fully open to traffic again. The part, which had been closed since Monday evening, September 27, was released again on Thursday morning at 5 o’clock. This immediately had a significant effect on the traffic on the road.
It was a road closure such as we do not often experience: the A12 between Oudenrijn and Nieuwerbrug was completely closed for maintenance for no less than nine days. One of the most essential traffic arteries in the Netherlands closed just after the relaxed home working advice and at the start of traditionally one of the busiest months on the road. It was a blueprint for traffic misery.
That proved to be the case last week and especially this week, because the entire first half of the week was especially busy in and around the Randstad. The closure of the A12 was seen as an important cause, although bad weather in particular also played a role in the busiest morning rush of the year. The weather is now better and the A12 is also completely open again, which immediately makes a big difference. Perhaps it will still not be so bad with the ‘return of the traffic jam ghost’. According to the ANWB, there was 469 km of traffic jam at its peak last Thursday morning, this morning it was 391 km.
Jorn de Vries van Flitsmeister sees the reopening of the A12 as the main reason that there are now much fewer traffic jams: “Our data shows that the morning rush hour is a lot quieter than yesterday. The peak of 1,154 minutes of delay was reached around 08:30. around the same time it was 45% more (2,093 minutes delay). Normally Thursday mornings are busier than Wednesday mornings. The reopening of the A12 means that traffic can flow normally again. In our data, we saw that the work of the past week was a major bottleneck for traffic.”
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl