The eastern lift, which has been operating on the new systems, has gone up and down over seven hundred times between early September and mid-October 2025. In less than one percent of the cases, six times in total, this led to a malfunction that affected road and shipping traffic.
‘These malfunctions were all unrelated and occurred partly because we are still working on the bridge,’ says Arjan Labee, technical manager at Rijkswaterstaat. ‘In doing so, there is always a risk that, for example, a wrong wire is accidentally pulled out.’
‘On the other hand, these were caused by teething problems, such as a barrier that did not open or camera images that suddenly disappeared.’
Resolve as quickly as possible
The expectation is that the number of malfunctions will decrease after the completion of the renovation. ‘But the chance of it happening remains, unfortunately, nothing can be done about that.’ In early October 2025, a special training session for technicians on the bridge was held to ensure they are well informed about the new installations.
‘This way, we ensure that in the event of a malfunction, it can be resolved as quickly as possible. Because the sooner the bridge is available again, the less inconvenience there will be for road and shipping traffic.’
