Barrier

The highway A9 has divided the urban area of Amstelveen for years. Amstelveen is a suburban city, originated from an old village, and located nearby Amsterdam. Directly next to the modernistic city centre the raised highway A9 is situated. The intended broadening of this highway provides for a reason and offers financial means to mitigate the division between the north and south of Amstelveen. This task is linked to the aim to expand the city centre and to anchor the centre better with the residential areas of the city. Urhahn also made a vision for the city heart.

 

Connecting two parts of the city

By lowering the highway, covering it partly and by adapting junctions new opportunities for the city arise. Urhahn has explored the traffic engineering aspects and has used them to give Amstelveen a new diligence. Next to the old village that is now situated alongside the road, a city park is constructed on top of the highway and a school gets a playground on this roof. In the city centre three sub-tasks are entangled in an integral design: the development of a public transport node, the transformation of a big office building and the reinforcement of the popular shopping centre.

 

Balance between affordability and efficiency for the city

Many variants have passed the previous years: from a complete tunnel to a half covered one. The current design focuses on the balance between affordability and efficiency for the city. Not the entire highway needs to become a tunnel, in some parts the noise reduction is sufficient with an uncovered road that is just a bit lower than ground level.