Second Coen Tunnel

The Second Coentunnel is a planned tunnel under the North Sea Canal, next to the existing Coentunnel in Amsterdam. The tunnel will be built in combination with a new highway connection, the Westrandweg, to the A5 motorway. The tunnel will consist of 3 fixed lanes and two variable lanes which will be opened in the direction which traffic is the heaviest. The goal of the Second Coentunnel is to lighten congestion which occurs before the existing Coentunnel on the A8 motorway in the morning and the A10-West motorway in the evening. This should greatly increase the accessibility of Amsterdam from the north of the Netherlands.

The Second Coentunnel was procured under a Public-private partnership model under a DBFM structure (Design Build Finance & Maintain). The project was awarded to a consortium consiting of French group Vinci Concessions, CFE, Dredging International, Besix, Dura Vermeer, TBI Bouwgroep and Arcadis. The consortium was advised by financial advisors RebelGroup and Rabobank, with Clifford Chance acting as legal advisor in the project.

Total costs of the project are estimated at 1,2 billion euros and construction is planned to start in the summer of 2009. The tunnel should be completed in 2012.