Trisha Shetty (Editor)

A2 motorway (Netherlands)

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Length
  
217.1 km

A2 motorway (Netherlands)

North end:
  
E 19 / E 35 / A10 / S110 in Amsterdam

South end:
  
E 25 / A25 at Belgium border

Provinces:
  
North Holland, Utrecht, Gelderland, North Brabant, Limburg

The A2 motorway is a motorway in the Netherlands. It is one of the busiest highways in the Netherlands. The road connects the city of Amsterdam, near the interchange Amstel, with the Belgian border, near Maastricht (NL) and Liège (B), and the Belgian road A25.

Contents

The route of the A2 motorway is shared with two major European routes. Between its start, at the Interchange Amstel near Amsterdam, and the Interchange Oudenrijn near Utrecht, the E35 follows the A2 motorway. From the Interchange Oudenrijn towards the Belgian border just south of Maastricht, the European route E25 follows the route of the A2. The local and express lane on A2 has different speed limit. The speed limit on express lane is 120 km/h (75 mph) and local is 100 km/h (63 mph).

Road N2

Currently, the motorway A2 is interrupted at one location, near Maastricht. This section is being referred to as N2, to make a distinction between the motorway (A2) and the non-motorway (N2).

The N2 through Maastricht

Between the interchanges Kruisdonk and Europaplein through Maastricht, the motorway A2 is interrupted. This road section was built as a highway with several at-grade intersections with traffic lights.

The N2 around Eindhoven

The beltway around the city of Eindhoven, the so-called Randweg between the interchanges Ekkersweijer and Leenderheide, uses a system of local-express lanes. The inner two lanes do not have any exits, so it is exclusively for express traffic passing the city of Eindhoven; it is considered a motorway (A2) with a maximum speed of 120 km/h (75 mph). The outer two lanes are used by vehicles to and from Eindhoven and the neighbouring towns. It does not meet the Dutch standards of a motorway (steeper grades near intersections and smaller bend radiuses), and has a maximum speed of 80 km/h (50 mph). These outer lanes have road number N2, to distinguish the local lanes from the express lanes.

Other reconstruction projects

The A2 motorway was subject to multiple reconstruction projects. Next to the project around Eindhoven, as described above, the A2 was being rebuilt at the following locations:

Amsterdam - Utrecht

Between interchanges Holendrecht and Oudenrijn, the road has been widened from six (2x3) to ten (2x5) lanes. It has enough space to expand the road to fourteen (2x7) lanes. Near the city of Utrecht, a system of local-express lanes has been applied, with the inner three lanes serving express traffic, and the outer two lanes serving local traffic. Unlike the situation near Eindhoven, the motorway status is maintained for local lanes, which means that all ten lanes will keep the name A2.

Utrecht - 's-Hertogenbosch

Between interchanges Oudenrijn and Everdingen, the A2 was expanded to 2x4 lanes. Between interchanges Everdingen and Deil, the road is widened from four (2x2) to eight lanes (2x4); the section between interchanges Deil and Empel was expanded from four to six lanes.

's-Hertogenbosch beltway

The A2 around the city of 's-Hertogenbosch was rebuilt similarly to the future situation near Utrecht. However, there are only just four express lanes, instead of the six near Utrecht, so the road has 4x2 lanes.

's-Hertogenbosch - Eindhoven

Since both the 's-Hertogenbosch and Eindhoven beltways were finished in 2009, a new bottleneck appeared between both cities. The motorway has only 2x2 lanes while both beltways are having twice the capacity. Construction of expanding this section to 2x3 lanes started on December 13, 2011.

Future

A tunnel underneath the city of Maastricht is under construction, to eliminate at-grade intersections. It will have both local and express lanes.

References

A2 motorway (Netherlands) Wikipedia