"When signs are need to forbid something, that is always an indication of a design flaw" That is one of the most outstanding statements I have ever heard
The contractor ordered a full color, 3D printed, 1:300, scale model where I worked at the time. It was used for the residents near the construction plan, to be able to view the plans and discus it if they found necessary. It was a huge and awesome print. Never tought to see it on your channel, nice video!
From the video I couldn't make out how the car entrance and the bike entrance relate to each other. Is the car entrance very far away from the bike entrance?
The perforated aluminium wall is also an acoustic absorber, reducing noise level inside. I believe the irregular decorative patterns also help diffuse reflections which reduces that annoying tunnel-y flutter echo.
Another reason this tunnel was installed is because the crossing was notorious for how long it was closed vs. Open. If the trains were a bit delayed, that crossing could easily be closed 30+ min every hour.
Haha nice, I drive through that tunnel almost every working day, and cycle through it once or twice per week. It's great, and a big improvement over the old situation, where the passing trains closed the road for a substantial amount of time every hour. It was a real problem for the emergency services, and inconvenient for all road traffic.
Actually, the motorway tunnel in Maastricht (A2/N2) is also a stacked Tunnel, but this one is still unique because it does not stack just road traffic.
I guess you've forgotten to mention one of the reasons for building this tunnel : the times per hour the railway-crossing was closed to road traffic due to the intense traintraffic, effectively splitting Hilversum in two.
Which is why nowhere in the developed world is putting in new level crossings. The Netherlands is of course a more difficult case. But an easy country to lay railway track in!
In Maastricht there's the Willem Alexander tunnel. Also stacked. bottom lanes are for continuing traffic, top ones for local traffic. Before, this stretch of about 2km, used to have 6 traffic lights. The only 6 lights from Amsterdam to Rome on the A2/E25. Gotta love tunnels!
In "shared" tunnels, the bike paths would not go to the same depth as the car lanes. Bikes don't have the same height requirements as, for example, trucks, so no need to dig to the same depth.
Naah, at the south exit, very first thing that you meet is a crossover used by cars (alternative being the official route that can add 15 minutes to travel 50 meters as the crow flies), heavy freight traffic from FSH and Aalbers Piping and the nearby Riebeeck shopping center and cars. Go south from there and that traffic crosses your cycling lane in a blind angle, which has caused accidents already. There's already plans to change both approaches and the tunnel itself. Basically the entire road and area you see left at 0:50 needs to be changed as it's dangerous being the last surviving car route AND crossing bicycle routes. It's amounting go a giant cost-blowout and a testcase of 'Why blindly hating on cars doesn't work'. Because the municipality argued everybody would travel by bicycle if they weren't through traffic. This has turned out to be untrue. What it really needed was a better way for local car traffic, as you've got a large amount of trucks coming in west, large amount of hospital-related car traffic east, and their routes have been entirely cut by the tunnel. Previously they just took a turn and proceeded on their way, now they have to force their way through a area with intensive parking challenges and crossing several other routes.
@@hendman4083That's true of course! I had forgotten that there is already thought out design like that! I just don't really have such infrastructure where I live :/
this tunnel has like 4 levels of things american infrastructure would never even try to do first, a tunnel JUST FOR bicycles second, the car tunnel is deeper and longer in benefit of the bicycle tunnel thirth, the tunnel was made to not disturb public transport fourth, the tunnel was needed, bc they wanted to broaden the train railway, with a with a bus lane
Fifth was build a tunnel at all. Many places in the US refuse to provide tunnels or build bridges to bypass rail traffic which can shutdown even emergency services for hours on end resulting in deaths.
The A2 motorway tunnel in Maastricht is a stacked tunnel too. The lower level is for trough traffic and the upper level has a more local acces function.
This is one of the few channels on RUclips that I do not unsubscribe from. Always sub, always like Netherlands bike system = a true example of how it's possible to live better if you always strive best for cycling/pedestrians and respect for car lovers
Very interesting concept, I like such outside of the box solutions. Will keep this one in mind, as it could be a solution that could be applied elsewhere too, and I work on such kind of projects all the time.
Hilversum is my hometown, and I grew up there my entire life! It's interesting to see this project *finally* finished. Especially since I havent seen it in person myself (yet)!
Nou, bespaar je de moeite. Het is het epicentrum van de middelmatigheid sinds ze dit, het ziekenhuis enz gerealiseerd hebben. De Riebeeck staat ondertussen volledig leeg behalve de Appie.
@@erik5374 Oh ja joh? Alle 15 jaar dat het daar grotendeels of helemaal leeg was, is puur vanwege de verbouwing door BUN, die pas in 2025 komt? Ondanks dat BUN het pas in 2009 aankocht? Ken je nog meer semi-grappige moppen?
I love how they consider the incline angel, because it's important when you have people of different fitnesses cycling. However, coming from the north of England where everything is a hill.... I really wish I could be picky over cycling up them or not.
It is actually a big improvement. I went to school near that place. Traffic was always backed up from 8am to about 9:30am and from 4pm to 6pm. If it happens sometimes it might not be that big of a deal, but if traffic is consistently stuck between certain timestamps then there is a structural problem. Glad they resolved it.
I now see that the description is accurate, but the voice-over clearly isn't, just stating it's the only stacked tunnel, which it definitely isn't. It may be the smallest, however.
@@BicycleDutch I did. Then I switched on the subtitles and read that what you're saying as separate sentences is actually written as one. In the half second pause after what I understood to be a sentence my mind must have drifted off to counting how many other stacked tunnels I know.... Anyway, thanks for your reply. Rewatching your great videos never hurts.
Very creative and interesting solution to a tricky problem. Even though we badly need projects like this in the UK, I guarantee you we don't have the will or creativity to pull off something like this. And even if we did, it would cost 5x as much and take 5x as long and everyone would moan about how expensive it was, how long it took, how much disruption it caused, and then it would never be done again because the government would listen to all the wealthy people complaining and get too scared to piss them off again in case they stop donating to their political party.
Hey that's close to my hood! It's indeed a remarkable tunnel. Thank you sir for being an ambassador for good bicycle infrastructure. I believe it's one of the best things our country has to offer. I believe part of the climate warming could be mitigated by implementing this approach in the world: safe infrastructure for bicycles and e-bikes. I'm not a saint I don't cycle for each distance, but I do always use it for short distance every week.
Right, you have never visited Hilversum, confirmed. It's the mobility-bullying capital of the Netherlands, with roads being made single-direction and changing so often even locals get lost. This tunnel was built to bully mobility out of existance, blocking in-neighbourhood mobility except by bicycle, alllowing only through-traffic.
@@nvelsen1975 Het Gooi is the most "sprawl" type area that we have in the country. Things were built without too much thinking. Infrastructure there is notably cramped, unlogical , unconnected. It's easier to "just go by car" there for that reason.
For context, this is one of the busiest sections of train track in the country. For that reason they're working on a capacity project based on removing as many crossings as possible from it. I honestly think this route should have been removed for cars, but i agree that this was a good solution if they are unwilling to do that
I live near this tunnel, and I couldn't help noticing that the cycling ramps are a bit on the steep side. I was wondering why, but if there was a reason to keep the car tunnel short, I guess that explains it.
I'm guessing the main reason would simply be that extending not only the bike tunnel but also the car tunnel at the same time is just a lot more expensive than it'd usually be to extend a bike tunnel.
@@markylon Not quite. An expatriate can be a non-immigrant if they don't plan to stay or become citizens. In that case they are a form of "migrant worker" or "long term tourist".
Stacking is also smart for the top tunnel; you can 'cross' the underlying road right at the exits, without actually having to 'cross over'. Here in Groningen we have a similar situation, the Paterswoldseweg underpass. With cycling lanes on both sides. To make it safer for cyclists to cross there are overpasses on both sides of the tracks/buslanes. On one side it connects to the cycling path to the main train station. On the other side it also connects the two city blocks for cars.
personally, I always prefer when the railline is slighty elevated so the underpass only needs to dipp a little bit. That way the underpass doesn't feel so much like a tunnel.
Okay, but then you would need to build a big embankment for miles, blocking lots of people's daylight, plus that railroads with embankments take up a lot more space than those without, unless you build something like an arched railway (not the prettiest thins either). In this case, there is not all that much space and it probably would also have been more costly to raise the railroad, not to mention the interruption of the train schedule on this very important and busy line.
@@09conradothat can be true, it just kind of depends on the situation. For example, hoe close do people live to the tracks? Are they right next to it or is there a bit of space? Also l, I didn't mean a fully elevated railline, but one that is slightly raised so underpasses don't have to be too steep. Of course the construction would be quite a hassle, but sometimes worth it. My city did this exact thing, (about a hundred years ago but still) they got rid of the existing railtracks and replaced it with an elevated track and station. There were several reasons, but one was to connect to North and South of the city better
OMG, yes plz, and non intersecting pedestrian bycicle intersections too plz, one of the few places that gets so busy that mixed pedestrian cycling infrastructure starts to stop working.
Too bad about the dangerous situations they created for traffic, as well as the cost blowout and it taking years to construct. That street on the left at 0:50 where you see the BMW? Yeah, heavy freight traffic from VSH, Aalberts Integrated Piping and the Riebeeck shopping center logistics are now being forced through that as a result of the tunnel cutting the car link entirely, and the deck in the middle is used by cars because the official route means traveling 50 meters can take 15 minutes in the rush hour. Which they don't want because car traffic east is coming from the hospital there, or the small businesses located at Van Linschotenlaan. And let me tell you: They don't care about you, they care about driving their extended vans to the jobsite at maximum speed with no delays or detours. It tells you all you need to know that the tunnel already needed major fixes in 2022, 2023 and upcoming in 2024 according to the BUN presentation I saw late last year.
Lol, not wanting the project to be subject to tunnel regulations, yet when finished still officially naming it a tunnel. How many 249m tunnels-that-aren't-tunnels are there in the EU and is that number increasing rapidly or just as organically as before these regulations?
It's probably because at 250m or more extra safety features are required like exit doors, forced ventilation, camera supervision. If the regulations are designed well, those things are not needed at 249m
@@EntropicTroponin I understand, the reasons, risks and benefits are obvious. I'm just chuckling at the visibility of the tension between the colloquial understanding of the term tunnel and the technical definition of a tunnel.
We have quite a few of them. A lot of which are "highway covering" where parks are put on top. Also a tunnel can still be a tunnel at less than 250m. It just won't have that one law applied to it..
I'm seeing a newspaper mention it cost 2.5 million euros. Also, shame on those two above me who say that nobody cares. Either contribute to the discussion or shut up
@@MacAnters That's the costs for the city of Hilversum. The project did overrun costs but I think the builder had to pay for that. Maybe the province also chippedi n a little.
@@ColtraneTaylorI live here and I was suprised too. But I can acknowledge no building was moved. We build our building on 70 feet poles which are hammered into the soil so moving is not an option.
Meanwhile in the US: Tear down the buildings, build a highway, widen it in a year because it's cramped, neglect the busses, and have it still being cramped
Get swol. Jokes aside. that might be an issue. The gradient is maximum 7.5% in the Netherlands. That's not awfully steep. I can't really tell what the gradient is here tho. Might even be less.
like the others said, most wheelchair users won't have a problem with a climb like this. they are used to push their wheelchair. but in case you would struggle i don't doubt that if you ask nicely a passerby would help you out by pushing you up to the top. (i know i would)
@@ChristiaanHWas a manual wheelchair user who occasionally needs a little help with steep gradients, I have indeed never been turned down when asking for help. I do very much dislike needing the help though.. This gradient doesn't look too bad to me though
Well, the "walls" in this case are aluminum sheets that are placed in front of the real walls, and the artwork is the holes that are drilled into the metal in a particular pattern. Everything about this screams "anti-graffiti measurements" to me.
That's caus we used to deliberately make stuff look horrid and oppressive and actively designed to discourage use so people go "nah fuck you" and spray paint all over it. If you make it nice, people treat it nicer.
In 2024 princess Alexia started her Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering, University College London. How appropriate. Maybe one day she will design tunnels and bridges herself.
Since this doesn't seem to have elevators, I wonder how the steepness of the inclines are handled by human power/pushed wheelchairs. Did you happen to see any people in wheelchairs @BicycleDutch ?
It is a problem for some wheelchair users going by news reports, especially when no bystanders are around to help. I have no idea though if, when and how it can be solved.
@@u.2b215Agreed; I've traversed it in a (temporary) wheelchair one time and I can see how it could be an issue for those with feeble arm strength or stamina..
@@u.2b215 Interesting. I don't know how difficult/expensive this would be to add to and already built set up and it would be a shame to have to do some tearing up and rebuilding on a new build like this AND more importantly I have no idea how you could adapt it for wheelchairs and if a person in a wheelchair would even put their full trust in such a system, but maybe something like this bicycle hill lift can be an idea? ruclips.net/video/zipZ5kwhFfs/видео.html Seems like a bit of an oversight for such a project, especially considering that the next closest location to cross the tracks is about 1 KM away, which isn't really a reasonable distance to ask for people in wheelchair to take.
@@u.2b215 This entire concept is brilliant and therefore probably wouldn't leave the design stages in most USA cities. We just can't seem to find the money. However, if a new structure includes pedestrian access, then it absolutely must include access by manual wheelchairs or those on crutches. I said "absolutely must" but there are exceptions. The laws can be complicated. Especially with established structures. The equation for a ramp is quite gradual. I'm too lazy to look it up, but the commonly used equation is, for every inch in height = 1 foot in length. So, if an entrance is 10 inches (25cm) above the ground then the ramp must be 10 feet (3m) long. Of course different situations require different solutions. I have found, generally speaking, that a new structure built for the disabled as an initial concern pretty much makes things better for most. Established buildings are another issue. The ramp into our historic county courthouse requires going past jail cells.
People that are wheelchair bound or cripple like me , use mobility scooters in the Netherlands. If you cannot afford one the government will buy you one and rent it to you for 14 dollars/month. Free of cost if you already pay 14 dollars for other help from the government like help with cleaning your house. A simple medical exam that you cannot normally walk will have to conclude your 1) indeed cripple/unable to walk. 2) that you cannot afford a mobility scooter with your income (
I don't think that I need floral decoration on a street underpass, but using a bright colour wall painting as well as bringing (preferably natural) light into the tunnel is a good idea, just like this well designed tunnel itself. If you want to make things good, make them right from the very beginning! Look at all aspects of the situation, and always solve the problem as a whole! Obviously the Dutch have learned to do that much better than my German fellow countrymen. Also, as a local resident, I voluntarily would have accepted the noise of the working site, if later I was rewarded with a very silent street. Well done.
The floral decoration pattern is probably so people don't put graffiti on the wall. If it was a clear concrete wall, you'd have it full with tags in no time.
Bedoel je die jongen die met zn kanis op de slagboom reed op een opgefokte gilera? Stephan, zat in mijn klas. Maar dat is wel langer dan een paar jaar. Zijn hele gezicht is herbouwd.
@@gordon1545 the budget for the highspeed bus provided the leverage to finance the tunnels now. but a tunnel would ultimately be inevitable. This railway is way too busy for level crossing.
Right? Made me smile, too. I live in the New York Catskills. The Alexia Tunnel incline is a bunny slope. Granted, we are not riding one speed bikes through these hills.
True, but if it’s like Sydney, Australia, you can get booked for “furious riding”! Iwas just wondering if you got up to say 40 kmh on the downhill could you coast up the hill.
In the US we would haven bulldozed all the buildings, the trains, and the bus way and put in a 8 lane highway
Ain't that sad?
And a McDonalds every 50 ft
Freedom!
@@vince9292 CCCP ❤
Haahah@@Mental_Illboy, no honestly, I'm happy they chose to build the tunnel. It's been a bit more quiet since then and no more accidents! ;)
"When signs are need to forbid something, that is always an indication of a design flaw"
That is one of the most outstanding statements I have ever heard
I live near this tunnel. Took a long time to complete but I now cycle it regularly - safe and quick!
First I thought they turned the car underpass into a cycling underpass. But this is also a genius idea with great space usage.
The contractor ordered a full color, 3D printed, 1:300, scale model where I worked at the time. It was used for the residents near the construction plan, to be able to view the plans and discus it if they found necessary. It was a huge and awesome print. Never tought to see it on your channel, nice video!
I can't visualize 1:300, how large was it in cm?
@@LaugeHeiberg the car tunnel is 400m long so it would have been 133 cm long
I live here. Everybody including myself were super sceptical. Now I feel like an idiot. This is a lovely solution.
From the video I couldn't make out how the car entrance and the bike entrance relate to each other. Is the car entrance very far away from the bike entrance?
Takes courage to admit you were wrong :) glad to hear it worked out for you in the end!
The perforated aluminium wall is also an acoustic absorber, reducing noise level inside. I believe the irregular decorative patterns also help diffuse reflections which reduces that annoying tunnel-y flutter echo.
Another reason this tunnel was installed is because the crossing was notorious for how long it was closed vs. Open. If the trains were a bit delayed, that crossing could easily be closed 30+ min every hour.
The entire cycling world is envious of Dutch cycle infrastructure!
Im a man who prefers walking and railroads and Im envious.
Haha nice, I drive through that tunnel almost every working day, and cycle through it once or twice per week. It's great, and a big improvement over the old situation, where the passing trains closed the road for a substantial amount of time every hour. It was a real problem for the emergency services, and inconvenient for all road traffic.
And then when you come out of the tunnel there is a red traffic light :(:(:(
Actually, the motorway tunnel in Maastricht (A2/N2) is also a stacked Tunnel, but this one is still unique because it does not stack just road traffic.
I think the Maastunnel in Rotterdam has stacked cycling and pedestrian levels too? (Though not stacked with the motor traffic tunnels.)
Also interesting to note: the bus way on top can also be used by ambulances from the nearby hospital.
I guess you've forgotten to mention one of the reasons for building this tunnel : the times per hour the railway-crossing was closed to road traffic due to the intense traintraffic, effectively splitting Hilversum in two.
He did mention it in passing.
Which is why nowhere in the developed world is putting in new level crossings. The Netherlands is of course a more difficult case. But an easy country to lay railway track in!
In Maastricht there's the Willem Alexander tunnel. Also stacked. bottom lanes are for continuing traffic, top ones for local traffic. Before, this stretch of about 2km, used to have 6 traffic lights. The only 6 lights from Amsterdam to Rome on the A2/E25. Gotta love tunnels!
That must also be so much more pleasant, to be separated from car traffic! Additionally it won't have to go as deep as a shared car tunnel. GENIUS!!
In "shared" tunnels, the bike paths would not go to the same depth as the car lanes. Bikes don't have the same height requirements as, for example, trucks, so no need to dig to the same depth.
@@hendman4083 yep. Car roofs - especially sports cars - tend to be below the level of my pavement in most modern tunnels which are only semi-shared.
Naah, at the south exit, very first thing that you meet is a crossover used by cars (alternative being the official route that can add 15 minutes to travel 50 meters as the crow flies), heavy freight traffic from FSH and Aalbers Piping and the nearby Riebeeck shopping center and cars.
Go south from there and that traffic crosses your cycling lane in a blind angle, which has caused accidents already.
There's already plans to change both approaches and the tunnel itself. Basically the entire road and area you see left at 0:50 needs to be changed as it's dangerous being the last surviving car route AND crossing bicycle routes. It's amounting go a giant cost-blowout and a testcase of 'Why blindly hating on cars doesn't work'. Because the municipality argued everybody would travel by bicycle if they weren't through traffic. This has turned out to be untrue.
What it really needed was a better way for local car traffic, as you've got a large amount of trucks coming in west, large amount of hospital-related car traffic east, and their routes have been entirely cut by the tunnel. Previously they just took a turn and proceeded on their way, now they have to force their way through a area with intensive parking challenges and crossing several other routes.
It is. :)
@@hendman4083That's true of course!
I had forgotten that there is already thought out design like that! I just don't really have such infrastructure where I live :/
this tunnel has like 4 levels of things american infrastructure would never even try to do
first, a tunnel JUST FOR bicycles
second, the car tunnel is deeper and longer in benefit of the bicycle tunnel
thirth, the tunnel was made to not disturb public transport
fourth, the tunnel was needed, bc they wanted to broaden the train railway, with a with a bus lane
Europe has infrastructure figured out
@@DyslexicMitochondriaI was curious about ur username so clicked on ur profile. Ur channel is a hidden gem bro
Fifth was build a tunnel at all. Many places in the US refuse to provide tunnels or build bridges to bypass rail traffic which can shutdown even emergency services for hours on end resulting in deaths.
Honestly as a european this is just a massive waste of money especially because this was all done for a fucking bus route
@@tokicatch878 As a dutch person, I think this is great
The level of dedication of the Dutch and their engineers is unreal
We have a very strong cycling lobby and simply don't have space for US style urban sprawl and their highways.
Came from Not Just Bikes' channel. Great stuff!
The A2 motorway tunnel in Maastricht is a stacked tunnel too. The lower level is for trough traffic and the upper level has a more local acces function.
This is one of the few channels on RUclips that I do not unsubscribe from.
Always sub, always like
Netherlands bike system = a true example of how it's possible to live better if you always strive best for cycling/pedestrians and respect for car lovers
Very interesting concept, I like such outside of the box solutions. Will keep this one in mind, as it could be a solution that could be applied elsewhere too, and I work on such kind of projects all the time.
Hilversum is my hometown, and I grew up there my entire life! It's interesting to see this project *finally* finished. Especially since I havent seen it in person myself (yet)!
Nou, bespaar je de moeite. Het is het epicentrum van de middelmatigheid sinds ze dit, het ziekenhuis enz gerealiseerd hebben. De Riebeeck staat ondertussen volledig leeg behalve de Appie.
@@nvelsen1975 de riebeeck staat leeg omdat de eigenaar wil gaan verbouwen. Zwartkijker.
@@erik5374
Oh ja joh? Alle 15 jaar dat het daar grotendeels of helemaal leeg was, is puur vanwege de verbouwing door BUN, die pas in 2025 komt? Ondanks dat BUN het pas in 2009 aankocht?
Ken je nog meer semi-grappige moppen?
Whow what a improvment. This crossing was a huge pain in the ass.
I love it how borderline infrastructure in the Netherlands would be next level, out of this world in Australia.
Such a cool design. Thanks for sharing this! Also looked like a lovely sunny day for a ride!
I love how they consider the incline angel, because it's important when you have people of different fitnesses cycling. However, coming from the north of England where everything is a hill.... I really wish I could be picky over cycling up them or not.
It is actually a big improvement. I went to school near that place. Traffic was always backed up from 8am to about 9:30am and from 4pm to 6pm. If it happens sometimes it might not be that big of a deal, but if traffic is consistently stuck between certain timestamps then there is a structural problem. Glad they resolved it.
Stacked tunnel is the Maastunnel Rotterdam. The longest of his kind in the early years.
But not with distinct train, cycling, and automobile levels. The description clarifies this.
I now see that the description is accurate, but the voice-over clearly isn't, just stating it's the only stacked tunnel, which it definitely isn't. It may be the smallest, however.
You should listen again. And this time the whole sentence, not just the first part.
@@BicycleDutch I did. Then I switched on the subtitles and read that what you're saying as separate sentences is actually written as one. In the half second pause after what I understood to be a sentence my mind must have drifted off to counting how many other stacked tunnels I know....
Anyway, thanks for your reply. Rewatching your great videos never hurts.
This is not the only stacked tunnel in the netherlands.
In maastricht there is a multiple km long stacked highway tunnel
I cycle this tunnel weekly so it's really fun to see this here
Stop it, you're making too much sense! ❤
That is dedication to good cycling infrastructure.
Really a splendid solution to the space problem and proly nowhere else seen in the world. Great thumbs up to the Dutch civil engineers.
Very creative and interesting solution to a tricky problem. Even though we badly need projects like this in the UK, I guarantee you we don't have the will or creativity to pull off something like this. And even if we did, it would cost 5x as much and take 5x as long and everyone would moan about how expensive it was, how long it took, how much disruption it caused, and then it would never be done again because the government would listen to all the wealthy people complaining and get too scared to piss them off again in case they stop donating to their political party.
So cool!!! This is 1 minute from my home. I was waiting for this video :)
Hey that's close to my hood! It's indeed a remarkable tunnel. Thank you sir for being an ambassador for good bicycle infrastructure. I believe it's one of the best things our country has to offer. I believe part of the climate warming could be mitigated by implementing this approach in the world: safe infrastructure for bicycles and e-bikes. I'm not a saint I don't cycle for each distance, but I do always use it for short distance every week.
Hilversum is noteworthy for being fairly carbrained as Dutch cities go.
That's Het Gooi for you :(
Right, you have never visited Hilversum, confirmed. It's the mobility-bullying capital of the Netherlands, with roads being made single-direction and changing so often even locals get lost.
This tunnel was built to bully mobility out of existance, blocking in-neighbourhood mobility except by bicycle, alllowing only through-traffic.
@@nvelsen1975 I live in Hilversum....
@@nvelsen1975 also if you're getting lost that's pretty sad. It's not hard.
@@nvelsen1975 Het Gooi is the most "sprawl" type area that we have in the country. Things were built without too much thinking. Infrastructure there is notably cramped, unlogical , unconnected. It's easier to "just go by car" there for that reason.
2 steep? Only for the nederlanders whove never seen a hill in their lives.
Saves a lot of waiting for trains you mean. Dutch railways are very intensely utilised.
For context, this is one of the busiest sections of train track in the country. For that reason they're working on a capacity project based on removing as many crossings as possible from it. I honestly think this route should have been removed for cars, but i agree that this was a good solution if they are unwilling to do that
That's actually really cool! Never seen something quite like this.
I grew up in this area, there was a huge protest on the nature destroyed for the busway without a plan for reforestation anywhere else.
I live near this tunnel, and I couldn't help noticing that the cycling ramps are a bit on the steep side. I was wondering why, but if there was a reason to keep the car tunnel short, I guess that explains it.
I'm guessing the main reason would simply be that extending not only the bike tunnel but also the car tunnel at the same time is just a lot more expensive than it'd usually be to extend a bike tunnel.
De A2 bij maastricht is ook een stacked tunnel toch? Met de N2 op het 1e niveau en de A2 op het 2e niveau
As an expat i have been running through the tunnel a few times and i didn’t notice the car tunnel inception. So this design was a success! 😂
You mean immigrant
@@markylon No there is a distinct difference.
@@KeVIn-pm7pu yes you're an immigrant
@@markylon You really should learn the difference between expat and immigrant.
@@markylon Not quite. An expatriate can be a non-immigrant if they don't plan to stay or become citizens. In that case they are a form of "migrant worker" or "long term tourist".
There is another stacked tunnel that one is for motorised traffic : nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koning_Willem-Alexandertunnel
Are you sure it's the only one in the Netherlands? Isn't the Rotterdam Maastunnel bicycle tunnel stacked on top of the pedestrian tunnel as well?
True. The Maastunnel is awesome.
But he specifically mentions 'consisting of a car tunnel with a cycling tunnel on top of it'
The Netherlands is just built different.
Literally.
@bicycleDutch isnt there also a stacked tunnel in Rotterdam? The Maas Tunnel
Het is onzin dat het de enige gestapelde tunnel is in Nederland, in Maastricht hebben ze een veel langere dubbeldekker tunnel!
het is de enige tunnel van alexia
But none of the other tunnels have a train line on top of a bicycle tunnel on top of an auto tunnel. . . so not the same.
Volgens mij is the Maastunnel ook “stacked”
The oudste tunnel van Nederland
good you said the Netherlands, cause I have a stacked (same one cycling on top) tunnel like it close to home. but it is in Belgium
Tunnel on a tunnel. It's tunnelception.
Yo dawg I heard you like tunnels so we ....
Ingenuity and a will to produce a good quality solution.
Well thought out, as ever from the Dutch.
Hello!!!😉
So true!!!!😉👍👍👍👌
I am impressed that they managed to avoid graffiti
They remove it every few weeks or so i believe
Wow, great highlight!
Beautiful country)
is the maastunnel not also a stacked tunnel?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maastunnel#/media/File:Maastunnel,_cross-section.jpg
It only stacks a cycling and footpath (see the image linked in the comment above), but I suppose that does make it a stacked tunnel?
Het ziet er goed uit 👍👍
Zeker weten!
Stacking is also smart for the top tunnel; you can 'cross' the underlying road right at the exits, without actually having to 'cross over'.
Here in Groningen we have a similar situation, the Paterswoldseweg underpass. With cycling lanes on both sides.
To make it safer for cyclists to cross there are overpasses on both sides of the tracks/buslanes.
On one side it connects to the cycling path to the main train station. On the other side it also connects the two city blocks for cars.
What a creative design!
I wish Canada utilized tunnels and underpasses more often when working on new major roads.
personally, I always prefer when the railline is slighty elevated so the underpass only needs to dipp a little bit. That way the underpass doesn't feel so much like a tunnel.
Okay, but then you would need to build a big embankment for miles, blocking lots of people's daylight, plus that railroads with embankments take up a lot more space than those without, unless you build something like an arched railway (not the prettiest thins either). In this case, there is not all that much space and it probably would also have been more costly to raise the railroad, not to mention the interruption of the train schedule on this very important and busy line.
@@09conradothat can be true, it just kind of depends on the situation. For example, hoe close do people live to the tracks? Are they right next to it or is there a bit of space? Also l, I didn't mean a fully elevated railline, but one that is slightly raised so underpasses don't have to be too steep. Of course the construction would be quite a hassle, but sometimes worth it. My city did this exact thing, (about a hundred years ago but still) they got rid of the existing railtracks and replaced it with an elevated track and station. There were several reasons, but one was to connect to North and South of the city better
De A2 bij Maastricht is toch ook een gestapelde tunnel?
Okay, so who's gonna rebuild this in CS?
OMG, yes plz, and non intersecting pedestrian bycicle intersections too plz, one of the few places that gets so busy that mixed pedestrian cycling infrastructure starts to stop working.
Ask Jason Slaughter.
Wow! That’s pretty darn clever. Love it. 😀
Too bad about the dangerous situations they created for traffic, as well as the cost blowout and it taking years to construct.
That street on the left at 0:50 where you see the BMW? Yeah, heavy freight traffic from VSH, Aalberts Integrated Piping and the Riebeeck shopping center logistics are now being forced through that as a result of the tunnel cutting the car link entirely, and the deck in the middle is used by cars because the official route means traveling 50 meters can take 15 minutes in the rush hour. Which they don't want because car traffic east is coming from the hospital there, or the small businesses located at Van Linschotenlaan.
And let me tell you: They don't care about you, they care about driving their extended vans to the jobsite at maximum speed with no delays or detours.
It tells you all you need to know that the tunnel already needed major fixes in 2022, 2023 and upcoming in 2024 according to the BUN presentation I saw late last year.
Lol, not wanting the project to be subject to tunnel regulations, yet when finished still officially naming it a tunnel.
How many 249m tunnels-that-aren't-tunnels are there in the EU and is that number increasing rapidly or just as organically as before these regulations?
It's probably because at 250m or more extra safety features are required like exit doors, forced ventilation, camera supervision. If the regulations are designed well, those things are not needed at 249m
@@EntropicTroponin I understand, the reasons, risks and benefits are obvious. I'm just chuckling at the visibility of the tension between the colloquial understanding of the term tunnel and the technical definition of a tunnel.
We have quite a few of them. A lot of which are "highway covering" where parks are put on top. Also a tunnel can still be a tunnel at less than 250m. It just won't have that one law applied to it..
The new ring road in Groningen will be "covered", except for some openings to prevent that these regulations apply.
It might be something else and not a stacked tunnel, but doesn't the Maastunnel in Rotterdam also have a cycling tunnel on top of a car tunnel?
Vehicles and cycling are next to each other in Rotterdam. There the pedestrian tunnel is on top of the cycling tunnel.
@@BicycleDutch it’s actually the other way around… 😊
@@RTDRalph Oh you're right, the pedestrians walk under the cycling tunnel.
What were the total costs of the project?
Who cares?
One Billion dollars. And?
I'm seeing a newspaper mention it cost 2.5 million euros.
Also, shame on those two above me who say that nobody cares. Either contribute to the discussion or shut up
4 gazzillion dollars
@@MacAnters That's the costs for the city of Hilversum. The project did overrun costs but I think the builder had to pay for that. Maybe the province also chippedi n a little.
Ik hou van de Nederlandse fietscultuur. Bedankt.
I love the artwork.
Whatabout the maastunnel? Cars, bikes and pedestrians.
Terrible. You can’t cycle down.
@@Klont123I've seen someone ride down on a moped, and I've seen someone cycle down on a BMX cycle. I wouldn't advise to try it, though...
In Rotterdam we already have a stacked tunnel for decades!
But not stacked like this one.
There's also a stacked tunnel in Maastricht but there it goed under a park instead of a railway.
And then there's the Maastunnel in Rotterdam, also a stacked tunnel, surprisingly under the Nieuwe Maas river.
This is the first stacked tunnel with a driveway for cars and bicycles, this didn't exist before.
0:38 Did they have to move the building on the right a little back? Road looks a lot wider after the tunnel.
No buildings were moved. That was the whole reason to build this tunnel the way they did. All the buildings remained where they were.
@@BicycleDutch But the space itself looks wider. Strange if that's just illusion.
There was a small square in front of the shops. More like a very wide foot path
@@ColtraneTaylorI live here and I was suprised too. But I can acknowledge no building was moved. We build our building on 70 feet poles which are hammered into the soil so moving is not an option.
@@basengelblik5199 Thank you, useful info!
Meanwhile in the US:
Tear down the buildings, build a highway, widen it in a year because it's cramped, neglect the busses, and have it still being cramped
Absolute genius. Still love the Dutch nation
Very good
1:54 got me suprised for a second 😅
Why?
@@olivertirreg take a guess🤣
@@hessel5385 heh?
@@wilmer4421The RUclips account name is the same name as the artist mentioned at the timestamp
maastunnel is stacked?
That's what I'm talkin' about! 😊
What do wheelchair users do? Especially hand-pushed chairs, if the cycle tunnel has such a steep gradient?
Get swol.
Jokes aside. that might be an issue. The gradient is maximum 7.5% in the Netherlands. That's not awfully steep. I can't really tell what the gradient is here tho. Might even be less.
Potential Energy -> Kinetic Energy -> Potential Energy
if you need a break, you can just turn yourself by 90°
like the others said, most wheelchair users won't have a problem with a climb like this. they are used to push their wheelchair.
but in case you would struggle i don't doubt that if you ask nicely a passerby would help you out by pushing you up to the top. (i know i would)
@@ChristiaanHWas a manual wheelchair user who occasionally needs a little help with steep gradients, I have indeed never been turned down when asking for help. I do very much dislike needing the help though..
This gradient doesn't look too bad to me though
In the UK the walls would be covered in graffiti and broken glass everywhere.
It happens here too. But it gets cleaned up pretty fast. The glass really fast and the graffiti somewhat fast.
Depends where you live. I live in the UK - similar artwork on a pedestrian subway near me is untouched after > a decade.
Well, the "walls" in this case are aluminum sheets that are placed in front of the real walls, and the artwork is the holes that are drilled into the metal in a particular pattern.
Everything about this screams "anti-graffiti measurements" to me.
That's caus we used to deliberately make stuff look horrid and oppressive and actively designed to discourage use so people go "nah fuck you" and spray paint all over it. If you make it nice, people treat it nicer.
In the UK they wouldn't even build the cycling tunnel...
In 2024 princess Alexia started her Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering, University College London.
How appropriate. Maybe one day she will design tunnels and bridges herself.
We have a lot more tunnels here in The Netherlands like this one. So this is not the only one.
Where?
No you don't. You don't have tunnels with bike tunnels on top of car tunnels.
Stoer
Since this doesn't seem to have elevators, I wonder how the steepness of the inclines are handled by human power/pushed wheelchairs. Did you happen to see any people in wheelchairs @BicycleDutch ?
It is a problem for some wheelchair users going by news reports, especially when no bystanders are around to help. I have no idea though if, when and how it can be solved.
@@u.2b215Agreed; I've traversed it in a (temporary) wheelchair one time and I can see how it could be an issue for those with feeble arm strength or stamina..
@@u.2b215 Interesting. I don't know how difficult/expensive this would be to add to and already built set up and it would be a shame to have to do some tearing up and rebuilding on a new build like this AND more importantly I have no idea how you could adapt it for wheelchairs and if a person in a wheelchair would even put their full trust in such a system, but maybe something like this bicycle hill lift can be an idea? ruclips.net/video/zipZ5kwhFfs/видео.html
Seems like a bit of an oversight for such a project, especially considering that the next closest location to cross the tracks is about 1 KM away, which isn't really a reasonable distance to ask for people in wheelchair to take.
@@u.2b215 This entire concept is brilliant and therefore probably wouldn't leave the design stages in most USA cities. We just can't seem to find the money. However, if a new structure includes pedestrian access, then it absolutely must include access by manual wheelchairs or those on crutches. I said "absolutely must" but there are exceptions. The laws can be complicated. Especially with established structures. The equation for a ramp is quite gradual. I'm too lazy to look it up, but the commonly used equation is, for every inch in height = 1 foot in length. So, if an entrance is 10 inches (25cm) above the ground then the ramp must be 10 feet (3m) long. Of course different situations require different solutions. I have found, generally speaking, that a new structure built for the disabled as an initial concern pretty much makes things better for most. Established buildings are another issue. The ramp into our historic county courthouse requires going past jail cells.
People that are wheelchair bound or cripple like me , use mobility scooters in the Netherlands. If you cannot afford one the government will buy you one and rent it to you for 14 dollars/month. Free of cost if you already pay 14 dollars for other help from the government like help with cleaning your house. A simple medical exam that you cannot normally walk will have to conclude your 1) indeed cripple/unable to walk. 2) that you cannot afford a mobility scooter with your income (
I don't think that I need floral decoration on a street underpass, but using a bright colour wall painting as well as bringing (preferably natural) light into the tunnel is a good idea, just like this well designed tunnel itself. If you want to make things good, make them right from the very beginning! Look at all aspects of the situation, and always solve the problem as a whole! Obviously the Dutch have learned to do that much better than my German fellow countrymen. Also, as a local resident, I voluntarily would have accepted the noise of the working site, if later I was rewarded with a very silent street.
Well done.
The floral decoration pattern is probably so people don't put graffiti on the wall. If it was a clear concrete wall, you'd have it full with tags in no time.
If you ONLY have what you NEED, you do not live, you barely exist.
I need floral decoration, especially if they remind people of native plants that our ecosystem needs to survive.
Was dit de plek waar een paar jaar geleden er een erg ongeluk was met een scooter?
Ja....
Bedoel je die jongen die met zn kanis op de slagboom reed op een opgefokte gilera? Stephan, zat in mijn klas. Maar dat is wel langer dan een paar jaar.
Zijn hele gezicht is herbouwd.
Ik dacht al…. Wanneer komt Marc nou eens kijken.
not almost, it took ONLY 2.5 years to build!
right? if you compare it with works in amsterdam that seem to take forever!
If you compare it to other countries then this is really fast.
So, it was opened two years ago.
Who thinks that the art work ( the leaves on the drilled panels ) is still unblemished ?
It is :) I live near it
A great example of tax money well spent :) Looks great!
The Maastunnel is actualy three levels
No, the car tunnel is next to the bicycle/pedestrian tunnel, they're not on top of each other in the Maastunnel.
@@BicycleDutch after checking: Yeah you are right. but the cycling and pedestrian tunnel are above one another.
Can you hear the cars underneath while riding a bike above?
Of course not. Continuous sound of car tires doesn't travel through half a meter of concrete.
The reason the Dutch do this is because of the amount of trains that cross the crossing.
Did you watch the video? The immediate motivation for the tunnel was the new high-speed dedicated bus line.
@@gordon1545 the budget for the highspeed bus provided the leverage to finance the tunnels now. but a tunnel would ultimately be inevitable. This railway is way too busy for level crossing.
incline too steep...
gotta love the the Dutch.
Right? Made me smile, too. I live in the New York Catskills. The Alexia Tunnel incline is a bunny slope. Granted, we are not riding one speed bikes through these hills.
It's fine for the bulk of cyclists however we do love to include toddlers, septua- and octogenerians as well.
Ik vind 2,5 jaar voor de oplevering nog best snel. De bouw van de tramtunnel in Den Haag heeft meer dan tien jaar geduurd! 😅
Should increase the general fitness levels with those short sharp climbs! Is there a speed limit on the downhills?
There's no speed limits on bikes, how would you even enforce it when bikes don't have speed gauges
What kind of country do you think we are exactly?
True, but if it’s like Sydney, Australia, you can get booked for “furious riding”! Iwas just wondering if you got up to say 40 kmh on the downhill could you coast up the hill.
Bpdbhp, nothing implied about your marvellous country. Hills are hills.
@@robertmoore512 Well officially riding a bike is restricted to 25 km/h, to avoid helmets. But nobody knows, and nobody cares here.
Oops, a Babboe!
Als ik later groot ben wil ik ook infrastructureel ingenieur worden. In Nederland!
Civiel ingenieur is de meer gangbare titel, geloof ik