The Coentunnel (1966) is a tunnel in the A10 motorway under the

North Sea Canal The North Sea Canal ( nl, Noordzeekanaal) is a Dutch ship canal from Amsterdam to the North Sea at IJmuiden, constructed between 1865 and 1876 to enable seafaring vessels to reach the port of Amsterdam. This man-made channel terminates at Amster ...

in western

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. The tunnel is named for the 17th-century colonizer

Jan Pieterszoon Coen Jan Pieterszoon Coen (, 8 January 1587 – 21 September 1629) was an officer of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in the early 17th century, holding two terms as governor-general of the Dutch East Indies. He was the founder of Batavia, ...

. The tunnel itself is 1283 metres long of which 587 metres are fully covered. The tunnel connects the

Zaan The Zaan () is a small river in the province of North Holland in the northwestern Netherlands and the name of a district through which it runs. The river was originally a side arm of the IJ bay and travels 13.5 kilometers (8½ miles) through the m ...

district with the western part of Amsterdam. The tunnel reaches a maximum depth of 22 metres. Before the tunnel was built, the Hem ferry and, to a lesser degree, the Schellingwouder bridge were the most important connections between Amsterdam and

Zaandam Zaandam () is a city in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is the main city of the municipality of Zaanstad, and received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in 1811. It is located on the river Za ...

, and this was a serious bottleneck for traffic. In 1959 5,800 vehicles were ferried daily and waiting times reached 45 minutes or more. In the 1950s inhabitants petitioned successfully for a tunnel under the North Sea Canal. Construction commenced in 1961 and the total cost amounted to 45 million Dutch guilders. The opening of the tunnel was inaugurated on 21 June 1966 by

Queen Juliana Juliana (; Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina; 30 April 1909 – 20 March 2004) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in 1980. Juliana was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. S ...

. In 2007, more than 100,000 vehicles passed through the tunnel daily, again ensuring traffic congestion. The

Second Coen Tunnel The Second Coen Tunnel is a tunnel under the North Sea Canal, next to the Coen Tunnel in Amsterdam. The tunnel was built in combination with a new highway connection, the Westrandweg, to the A5 motorway. The tunnel consists of 3 fixed lanes and t ...

has been procured under a public-private partnership structure, and construction started in the summer of 2009. On 13 May 2013, the new tubes opened for traffic and the old tubes were closed for extensive renovation. It is expected that all four tubes will be available for traffic by mid-2014.

References

External links

{{commonscat, Coentunnel Road tunnels in the Netherlands Tunnels completed in 1966 Immersed tube tunnels in the Netherlands Tunnels in Amsterdam