Innovatiestrook
A test lane next to the highway, where new road technology is tried out under real traffic. It started as my student concept and now lies along the A58.
- Year
- 2017 – 2022
- Role
- Concept and originator
- Client
- Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment
- Outcome
- 1st prize, Battle of Concepts · built and opened in 2022
- €70M
- estimated for the full Innovatiestrook
- €52.5M
- secured by 2018
- 1,400 m
- test lane along the A58
- 2022
- opened to traffic
New road technology, like white asphalt or solar roads, is hard to test. When I read that Rijkswaterstaat had closed a stretch of highway just to try out white asphalt, it struck me how much that costs. In Utrecht I had seen test strips for traffic systems, with cameras hanging above them. Why not a separate lane next to the highway, one you can close off easily, where new infrastructure is tested and shown to everyone driving past?
First prize
I entered the idea in a Battle of Concepts held by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment. The jury, made up of Rijkswaterstaat’s board of directors and officials from the ministry, awarded it first prize.
“What a fantastic idea! It really is a shop window for Infrastructure and Environment. With this concept you literally give room to innovation, and make the most of the innovative power in society. With Rijkswaterstaat we are already working this way, and there are some test locations, but we don’t yet connect them to the different users.” — the jury report (translated)
From concept to plan
The InnovA58 project took the Innovatiestrook into its plans for a sustainable, future-proof A58 highway. In 2018 the government journal (Staatscourant) published it as an integral part of the project. Different versions were then weighed in a MIRT evaluation, the Dutch multi-year programme for infrastructure, spatial planning and transport. Before that evaluation even started, €52.5M of an estimated €70M was already secured.
The start signal
On 27 September 2021, Minister Barbara Visser gave the official start signal for construction, together with Cees de Wijs (CEO of VolkerWessels Infrastructure), Tess van der Staak (youth mayor of Oirschot) and me, by starting up an electric road roller. (VolkerWessels)
“It still feels a bit unreal that the Innovatiestrook is really going to be built. […] Innovation is the way forward.” — what I said that day (translated)
Open, and in use
The Innovatiestrook opened in July 2022 at the Kloosters service area near Eindhoven: a 1,400-metre lane with its own on- and off-ramps, built on a zero-emission construction site. It has been used to test low-temperature asphalt made from 80–100% recycled material, bio-based road furniture and markings, and circular water storage. The first two-year test phase ended in July 2024. (Rijkswaterstaat)
Photos of the start signal: VolkerWessels / Rijkswaterstaat.