The A16 autoroute – also known as ''L'Européenne'' and forming between

Abbeville Abbeville (, vls, Abbekerke, pcd, Advile) is a commune in the Somme department and in Hauts-de-France region in northern France. It is the chef-lieu of one of the arrondissements of Somme. Located on the river Somme, it was the capital of ...

and Dunkirk a part of the larger ''Autoroute des estuaires'' – is a

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

in northern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. The motorway, which has a total length of , starts at a junction with the N104 Francilienne near

Attainville Attainville () is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department in Île-de-France in northern France. Population See also *Communes of the Val-d'Oise department The following is a list of the 184 communes of the Val-d'Oise department of France ...

Île-de-France The Île-de-France (, ; literally "Isle of France") is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France. Centred on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the country and often called the ''Région parisienne'' (; en, Pa ...

and ends at the

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

frontier near Bray-Dunes, serving en route Beauvais,

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...

Boulogne-sur-Mer Boulogne-sur-Mer (; pcd, Boulonne-su-Mér; nl, Bonen; la, Gesoriacum or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the C ...

, Calais and Dunkirk in Hauts-de-France. From its starting point near Paris, the A16 runs in a northerly direction, continues north parallel to the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

from Abbeville and then in an easterly direction along the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

coast. It is one of the two main routes between the

Port of Calais The Port of Calais in northern France is the fourth largest port in France and the largest for passenger traffic. It accounts for more than a third of economic activity in the town of Calais. Background The Port of Calais was the first cable ...

/ Channel Tunnel and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, the other being the

A26 A26 or A-26 may refer to: Roads * List of A26 roads Transportation * Douglas A-26 Invader, a light attack bomber built by Douglas * Aero A.26, a Czech reconnaissance aircraft of the 1920s * Focke-Wulf A 26, a German Focke-Wulf aircraft * Blekinge- ...

and A1 route to the east. The vast majority of the motorway was built in the 1990s to relieve the congested RN1 between Paris and the

Côte d'Opale The Opal Coast ( ; ) is a coastal region in northern France on the English Channel, popular with tourists. Geography The ''Côte d'Opale'' is a coastal region in northeastern France, in the departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais. It extends ...

(Boulogne and Calais). An 8 km southern extension between l'Isle-Adam and Attainville to a junction with the Paris ringroad N104 (Francilienne) opened in 2020. Between

Amblainville Amblainville () is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. Population See also * Communes of the Oise department The following is a list of the 679 communes of the Oise department of France. The communes cooperate in the fol ...

and Boulogne it is operated by the

Société des Autoroutes du Nord et de l'Est de la France SANEF, Société des Autoroutes du Nord et de l'Est de la France (Northern and Eastern French Highways Corporation) is a motorway operator company in France. It operates motorways in the North and East of France as a result of concessions given by ...

(SANEF) and is tolled. From Boulogne to the Belgian border the road is managed by the Direction Départementale de l'Équipement (DDE), which does not impose a toll. This motorway does not have any officially designated "full" service areas – all of them are designated "Aire de Repos" (rest area).

List of junctions

Future extensions

Currently the A16 runs from junction number 8 to junction number 65. This leads to speculation that the southern end of the motorway is intended to be extended either directly south by upgrading the RD301/RN1 to meet the A1 at Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, or to the east by upgrading the RN104 to meet the A1 at

Paris-Charles De Gaulle Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (french: Aéroport de Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, ), also known as Roissy Airport or simply Paris CDG, is the principal airport serving the French capital, Paris ( and its metropolitan area), and the largest intern ...

, thus completing the missing junction numbers.

External links

A16 autoroute
in Saratlas
Extension of the A16

Data on the A16

CPDP PROJET A16
{{Autoroutes A16