Traverse Highway N31, Harlingen, Netherlands

The city’s proximity to the water is an identifying feature. It played a vital role in the expansion of the Netherlands’ N31 highway. It was recently expanded to better guide traffic through the city. Gosse Schriemer, Project Manager for the N31 expansion for the province of Friesland, says that the expansion project was about more than just regulating traffic. “The new roadway makes for a better and safer connection between Amsterdam and the Leeuwarden, the northern region of the Netherlands. Built as a sub-surface freeway the old highway freed up space to connect the two halves of the city of Harlingen.” As the N31 cuts through the city, it was important to the authorities that the expansion was better integrated into the area as a whole. The N31 was to no longer be a separating element.

Netherlands-based architecture firm Royal Haskoning DHV designed a two-kilometer-long wall with a tunnel, viaducts, a railway bridge and an aqueduct. “When the authorities decided to expand the road’s capacity, they were met with the challenge of healing the urban structure and reuniting the two halves. That’s why the decision was made to lower two kilometers of the highway,” say the architects. The traverse is an open tunnel expanding 4.6 meters down. Exits to the city center were positioned halfway. Footbridges and the railway crossing create a connection between the city’s two halves. The adjacent landscape was also designed to embed and anchor the new structures into their urban surroundings.