A Railway Liftbridge, The Netherlands

The point where the Rotterdam-Dordrecht railway crosses the Oude Maas River was a major bottleneck for river and rail traffic for many years. The need to alleviate congestion at this crossing became even more pressing because Netherlands Railways (NS) wanted to increase the number of tracks on this line from two to four. The Ministry of Public Works and NS began to study ways to alleviate this bottleneck for both river and rail traffic as early as 1980. They examined a wide range of options, including a tunnel. This option was abandoned because nearby town centres would have required complicated and expensive underground infrastructure. Study subsequently concentrated on ground-level solutions. Ultimately, a three-stage plan was devised to relieve congestion at this bottleneck.