Amsterdam's new traffic control center

The Vernieuwing Verkeerscentrale Amsterdam project team is realizing a new traffic center and a fall-back facility for operating and monitoring the municipal road tunnels and performing traffic management on the urban road network. These are the main tasks of the traffic center.

More and more tunnels, roads and tasks 

The City of Amsterdam's traffic control operates and monitors the five municipal road tunnels from the Amsterdam Traffic Control Center and keeps an eye on the traffic flow on Amsterdam's road network 24/7. From the opening of the first Amsterdam road tunnel (the IJ Tunnel) in 1968, this has been done from the current traffic control center on Dijksgracht, on top of the IJ Tunnel ventilation building. 

Over the years, more and more roads and tunnels in Amsterdam have been added, which has also expanded the operations at the traffic center. As a result, the control center has a long history of system expansions, renewals and replacements. Each tunnel has its own operating systems and technology.

Because of these developments and the age of the building, the plant no longer meets today's requirements, both technically and ergonomically. After all, it has also become too cramped as a workplace. The building itself cannot be expanded, which also hinders future developments. And even during major maintenance still to be done on the ventilation building, the traffic control center on Dijksgracht cannot remain open.

Building a new traffic center with new systems

With the above in mind, in the summer of 2020, the municipality decided to develop and realize a new traffic center at a new location. With future-proof systems and control points to operate and monitor the tunnels, and systems for traffic management. At the end of 2022, the implementation decision was made by the City Council, so the implementation phase will start this year.

The implementation phase consists of several components:

1. The creation of a new sustainable building. It will house a control room and server rooms, training and testing facilities, office space and have spare capacity for future development. 

2. The further development of the so-called functional systems. This includes all technology to operate and monitor the tunnels from the new control center, including the control stations from which the traffic controllers can do their work. The system design of the renovated Piet Hein tunnel forms the basis for this. In outline, these systems provide standardized control of the tunnels and traffic management systems via the control stations. These central systems ensure the integral operation of the traffic control center. 

3. The required adjustments in the tunnels to enable operation and monitoring from the traffic control center. This has already been done at the recently renovated Piet Hein tunnel and the adaptation of the Michiel de Ruiter tunnel is in preparation. This will be followed by the three other Amsterdam tunnels: the IJ Tunnel, the Amsterdam Arena Tunnel and the Spaarndammertunnel. 

No easy task 

The innovation is not simple: many different systems, processes and departments come together in the traffic center and cannot be considered separately. In addition, this is a crucial process for the city. The tunnels and traffic management help keep traffic moving in the city.

Planning 

The current planning is to commission the new traffic center by the end of 2025. In parallel, work is also underway on a fall-back facility in the (existing) building on the Dijksgracht, which has yet to be made suitable for this purpose, in case there is a calamity in the new VCA. This is expected to be ready in 2026.

Ready for the future

In this way, Amsterdam is making the road tunnels, including the traffic center, ready for the future again: safe to use, easy to operate and easy to maintain. And in doing so, the Renewing Amsterdam Traffic Control Center project contributes to the accessibility, livability and traffic safety of the city.