The Western Scheldt Tunnel () is a tunnel in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

that carries highway N62 under the

Western Scheldt The Western Scheldt ( ), in the province of Zeeland in the southwestern Netherlands, is the estuary of the Scheldt river. This river once had several estuaries, but the others are now disconnected from the Scheldt, leaving the Westerschelde as ...

estuary between Ellewoutsdijk and

Terneuzen Terneuzen () is a city and municipality in the southwestern Netherlands, in the province of Zeeland, in the middle of Zeelandic Flanders. With almost 55,000 inhabitants, it is the most populous municipality of Zeeland. History First mentione ...

. It is the longest tunnel for highway traffic in the Netherlands.

History and description

The tunnel was built by a consortium of Franki Construct, Heijmans, Royal BAM Group, Philipp Holzmann, TBI Beton- en Waterbouw Voormolen and Wayss & Freytag on behalf of NV Westerscheldetunnel (Western Scheldt Tunnel Company), which is 100% owned by the province of

Zeeland Zeeland (; ), historically known in English by the Endonym and exonym, exonym Zealand, is the westernmost and least populous province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the southwest of the country, borders North Brabant to the east ...

. The tunnel was opened on 14 March 2003. After the tunnel was opened, the two automobile ferries between Flushing- Breskens and Kruiningen-Perkpolder, operated by the Provincial Steamboat Service (Provinciale Stoombootdiensten), were discontinued. The Western Scheldt Tunnel consists of two tubes, excavated by a

tunnel boring machine A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole" or a "worm", is a machine used to excavate tunnels. TBMs are an alternative to drilling and blasting methods and "hand mining", allowing more rapid excavation through hard rock, wet or dry so ...

. Each tube has two car lanes without a hard shoulder. Every 250 metres, the two tunnel tubes are connected by lateral connections. Normally the cross-connections are closed and locked. In an emergency, the doors unlock automatically. The traffic in the left driving lane of the other tunnel is stopped, allowing people to walk safely into the other tunnel. The Western Scheldt Tunnel is diameter, long, with on the south end a stretch of road with an uphill grade of 4.5%. The maximum clearance is . The tunnel reaches its deepest point under the Pas van Terneuzen shipping lane, below water level. For both directions, the toll is collected near

Borssele Borssele is a village in the Netherlands, Dutch province of Zeeland. It is a part of the municipality of Borsele, and lies about 12 km east of Vlissingen. The municipality name is spelled with a single ''s'' while the name of the town is spe ...

, near the north end of the tunnel.

Bus services

The tunnel is not accessible for

pedestrian A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, by wheelchair or with other mobility aids. Streets and roads often have a designated footpath for pedestrian traffic, called the '' sidewalk'' in North American English, the ''pavement'' in British En ...

cyclist Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

s or

moped A moped ( ) is a type of small motorcycle, generally having a less stringent licensing requirement than full motorcycles or automobiles. Historically, the term exclusively meant a similar vehicle with both bicycle pedals and a motorcycle eng ...

riders; however, there are

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

services and on request (one hour in advance) bicycles and mopeds can be transported in the bus and a trailer, respectively.

Public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

nodes are Tolplein ( Borsele) on the north bank and Terneuzen Busstation on the south bank. Bus services through these nodes are provided by Connexxion: *Bus 20:

Goes The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), operated by the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service division, supports weather fo ...

- Tolplein-

bus station A bus station, bus depot, or bus interchange is a structure where city buses or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. A bus station is larger than a bus stop, which is usually simply a place on the roadside, where buses can st ...

- Sluiskil- Sas van Gent- Zelzate (

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

) *Bus 50: between Middelburg and

Hulst Hulst () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and city in southwestern Netherlands in the east of Zeelandic Flanders. History Hulst received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in the 12th century. Hulst Siege of Hulst ...

Tolls

Prior to December 2024 cars and motorcycles were required to pay a toll of €5, while cars with caravans paid a toll of €7.45. These tolls were removed on 30 December 2024, leaving only the tolls for small trucks, campers, and busses (€18.20), as well for large trucks (€25). Reduced tolls are available for subscribers (€9.15 and €12.50 for cat 3 and cat 4 vehicles respectively), there is no reduced toll for residents of

Zeelandic Flanders Zeelandic Flanders ( ; ; )''Vlaanderen'' in isolation: . is the southernmost region of the province of Zeeland in the south-western Netherlands. It lies south of the Western Scheldt that separates the region from the remainder of Zeeland and th ...

(Zeeuws-Vlaanderen). Emergency vehicles and military vehicles can travel through the tunnel toll-free.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Toll tunnels in Europe Road tunnels in the Netherlands Tunnels in Zeeland Tunnels completed in 2003 Borsele Terneuzen Zeelandic Flanders Zuid-Beveland