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The A2 motorway no longer divides Maastricht

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Re: The A2 motorway no longer divides Maastricht

#21

Post by _Microft »

melling wrote: post #5

Los Angeles is going to build a wildlife overpass: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/worlds-largest-highway-overpass... Pedestrians and nature need to be given a higher priority.

I talked to a biologist a while ago who told me that there are species that are so averse to move through 'different' environments that a single lane street through a field can effectively cut the habitat into two different habitats with individuals on both sides never interacting/crossing the street again. That's pretty sad and a way larger effect of land use than I had ever imagined.

Re: The A2 motorway no longer divides Maastricht

#22

Post by Merrill »

oh_sigh wrote: post #16
petre wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool. Now try to picture those fumes and pollution in a tunnel.

Any tunnel of appreciable size will have designed ventilation and other auxiliary systems(life support/escape, maintenance, power, etc). It isn't just a tube in the ground.

It looks like there are 66 fans installed with venting at the tunnel ends. https://www.novenco-building.com/media/1166/king-willem-alex...

Re: The A2 motorway no longer divides Maastricht

#23

Post by petre »

oh_sigh wrote: post #16
petre wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool. Now try to picture those fumes and pollution in a tunnel.

Any tunnel of appreciable size will have designed ventilation and other auxiliary systems(life support/escape, maintenance, power, etc). It isn't just a tube in the ground.

I know. They're designed with fire in mind. What I don't know is what they're rated at and if they run at higher flow rates depending on traffic and/or pollution levels.

The alternative was to run the highway around the city, which is probably also cheaper. Though it's nice that they recovered some space and planted grass and trees over it.

Re: The A2 motorway no longer divides Maastricht

#24

Post by varjag »

Merrill wrote: post #15
brnt wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I crossed the parky boulevard on top the other day. I had to double take because I've never driven in Maastricht, but I recognized the flats and didn't know why I would recognize them in the middle of the city I'd never been in. Until I realized I recognized them from the times the A2 went straight through! Google streetview has images taken last year and 2009, so you can see the diff yourself.

In Google satellite view, there appears to be a railway about 400 meters west which similarly divides the city. Will that be buried as well?

Nearly every sizable European city has a through railway, it is super common here. They are rarely any obstacle.

Re: The A2 motorway no longer divides Maastricht

#25

Post by gambiting »

apexalpha wrote: post #2

My hometown! Cool to see it on HN. Maastricht uses to be the only traffic lights on route from Amsterdam to Paris. Yes. Traffic lights on a highway, in the middle of a city. As if the highway in the middle of a city wasn't annoyinh enough the traffic lights added some extra noise, fumes and pollution. The new tunnel has been the most magnificent change I've ever seen. And IIRC the entire project was within budget and…

>>Maastricht uses to be the only traffic lights on route from Amsterdam to Paris. Yes. Traffic lights on a highway, in the middle of a city

Sounds like the beautiful little town of Bad Oeynhausen, which I came to loathe(a bit) - I used to drive several times a year from Amsterdam to Krakow(~1300km) and literally the moment you got off the ferry in Amsterdam you were on the motorway literally all the way to Krakow.....except for having to drive through the very city centre of Bad Oeynhausen, every single time. I think last time I did that trip last year there were some intensive roadworks in that area, maybe nowadays there is a way to drive around the town without getting off the autobahn.

Re: The A2 motorway no longer divides Maastricht

#26

Post by edejong »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #18
gumby wrote: post #6

Quite an amazing effort, and the passing comparison to the Boston central artery/"big dig" was sobering.

Compare the culture of the respective locations and it's obvious why the Netherlands had the better outcome. The feedback loops are all wrong for getting a high value tunnel under Boston. They are at least less wrong in "beer Europe"[0] + Scandinavia. Massachusetts government "pays itself first" Massachusetts people consider the problem unsolvable and tolerates it. Netherlands and the adjacent parts of Europe (i.e I…

Love that illustration. Do you have a source? I'd like to pay attribution when I share it elsewhere.

Re: The A2 motorway no longer divides Maastricht

#27

Post by StreamBright »

lawlessone wrote: post #9

Does burying a whole road like this make it possible to capture and prevent vehicle smog in the streets above?

Yes, smog is usually heavier than air (oxygen+nitrogen mix). If you do not blow it up there on purpose you can filter it and get it outside of the city.

https://ephtracking.cdc.gov/showAirContaminants.action

Re: The A2 motorway no longer divides Maastricht

#28

Post by Sharlin »

brnt wrote: post #11
petre wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool. Now try to picture those fumes and pollution in a tunnel.

Cars come with HEPA filters. Most (non-Asian) pedestrians don't.

Noise and particulate pollution are perhaps the most external of the negative externalities of automobiles, riders being mostly insulated from their own emissions and from those of their peers. It feels fundamentally unfair.

Re: The A2 motorway no longer divides Maastricht

#29

Post by w-m »

oh_sigh wrote: post #16
petre wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool. Now try to picture those fumes and pollution in a tunnel.

Any tunnel of appreciable size will have designed ventilation and other auxiliary systems(life support/escape, maintenance, power, etc). It isn't just a tube in the ground.

But the ventilation doesn't go to the void, it will just be blown into the same neighborhood. So unless it's filtered in the tunnel ventilation system, you still get the same fumes there.

Re: The A2 motorway no longer divides Maastricht

#30

Post by logicchains »

gambiting wrote: post #25
apexalpha wrote: post #2

My hometown! Cool to see it on HN. Maastricht uses to be the only traffic lights on route from Amsterdam to Paris. Yes. Traffic lights on a highway, in the middle of a city. As if the highway in the middle of a city wasn't annoyinh enough the traffic lights added some extra noise, fumes and pollution. The new tunnel has been the most magnificent change I've ever seen. And IIRC the entire project was within budget and…

>>Maastricht uses to be the only traffic lights on route from Amsterdam to Paris. Yes. Traffic lights on a highway, in the middle of a city Sounds like the beautiful little town of Bad Oeynhausen, which I came to loathe(a bit) - I used to drive several times a year from Amsterdam to Krakow(~1300km) and literally the moment you got off the ferry in Amsterdam you were on the motorway literally all the way to Krakow....…

>Bad Oeynhausen

Town name checks out?

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