**11. The bigger picture**

Looking backwards the task to unite the different viewpoints in order to reach an joint agreement seemed less daunting than the decade of moving back and fourth may suggest. What could have caused it to take so long? The introduction of this chapter sketched the larger context in which the spatial developments in the Randstad took place. The latest stage in that development (VINEX) was a time in which the larger cities like Utrecht, The Hague and Rotterdam, and smaller cities such as Eindhoven, Amersfoort and Delft broke free from the boundaries that the 1970s motorway network had imposed on them. The urban footprint of these cities expanded over the motorways. With that the network that was carefully planned to bypass cities became part of many urban areas.

The fight that enfolded in the case of Leidsche Rijn focused on details such as noise, air pollution and safety. That fight may not have been fought so hard if it did not represent a more fundamental discussion on accessibility. The motorway network was the designated

Leidsche Rijn: Balancing the Compact City with the Randstad Motorway Network 43

produced in the process. The overall investigation can, nevertheless, be used as an evidencebased reference for the next generation of multifunctional tunnels in the Netherlands and abroad. It made clear that the motorway network in the Randstad had become an integral

ARCADIS (2001). Notitie interne en externe veiligheid Overkapping A2 Leidsche Rijn,

Broekhuizen, J.M. (1998). Categorie-0 tunnels, een bedreiging of oplossing? RHRR, afdeling

Bervaes, J.C.A.M., Kuindersma, W., Onderstal, J. (2001). Rijksbufferzones verleden, heden en

Brouwer, F.W., Rijnboutt, K. (2001). Licht aan het eind van de tunnel, onderzoek naar de

Burke, G.L. (1966). Greenheart Metropolis. Planning the Western Netherlands, St. Martin's

http://statline.cbs.nl/StatWeb/publication/?DM=SLNL&PA=7530NR&D1=0&D2

Hall, P. (1966, 1977, 1983). The World Cities, World University Library, Weidenfeld &

Maxwan (1998). Over Wegen, Programma van Wensen Integratie A2, concept.

Directie Transportveiligheid (1997). Externe veiligheid vervoer gevaarlijke stoffen.

Hoeven, F.D. van der (1999). de ontbrekende schakel, een veilige overkluizing van de A15,

Hoeven, F.D. van der (2002). RingRing, Ondergronds bouwen voor meervoudig

Hoeven, F. van der (2010). Landtunnel Utrecht at Leidsche Rijn: the conceptualisation of the

Infrasite (June, 2009). Utrecht wil gesloten overkapping A2 bij Leidsche Rijn. Available from: http://www.infrasite.nl/news/news\_article.php?ID\_nieuwsberichten=3514&lang

Molag, M. (1998). Conceptueel risico-analyse model voor transport door wegtunnels

Nieuwsbank, (June 2009). Utrecht krijgt gewenste overkapping A2 bij Leidsche Rijn. Available from: http://www.nieuwsbank.nl/inp/2002/03/07/E047.htm

Ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat, Directoraat-Generaal Goederenvervoer, The

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mogelijkheden tot integratie van Rijksweg A2 ter hoogte van Leidsche Rijn.

part of its built environment and that this fact requires new concepts and solutions.

**13. References** 

Amersfoort

Press, New York CBS StatLine (June 2009). Available from:

Nicolson, London

Publishers, Rotterdam

Hague

uage=nl

Openbare Veiligheid, Rotterdam

toekomst. Alterra Rapport 360, Wageningen, Alterra

=1-2&D3=a&HDR=T,G1&STB=G2&VW=T

Projectbureau Leidsche Rijn, Utrecht

rapport, N 110-03, CUR/COB, Gouda

http://www.maxwan.com/section/news/id/21/

ARDADIS/de architectengroep, Amersfoort/Amsterdam

Maxwan (June 2009). Leidsche Rijn under construction. Available from:

Dienst Stedebouw + Volkshuisvesting Rotterdam

network that would facilitate unrestricted transport of all goods and persons in all thinkable volumes. The dense grid of motorways that planners had drawn to accommodate the growing traffic was not built. Instead traffic concentrated on a few major corridors. Building homes and workplaces in these corridors exposed the population to their environmental impact. The major concern voiced by infrastructure planners was that the environmental impact could require that restrictions were imposed on specific goods and the volumes of vehicles that used these corridors. The construction of a tunnel represented more than just a local solution. Policy makers wrote in this context literally about the precedence and the irreversibility of such a solution. Unintended Leidsche Rijn may have become the poster boy of a more generic planning challenge in the Randstad.

Once the struggle was decided and it became clear that city and infrastructure had to life together, the length of the tunnel or its cover no longer mattered.

Fig. 17. Artist rendering of the Landtunnel Utrecht at Leidsche Rijn (Maxwan, 2009).
