Nationwide Rijkswaterstaat outage disrupts bridges, tunnels, and traffic systems

An ongoing nationwide outage at Dutch infrastructure agency Rijkswaterstaat is disrupting the operation of bridges, locks, and tunnels across the Netherlands. It is also knocking out traffic management tools and online services, officials said Saturday. According to the agency, the failures stem from planned fiber-optic maintenance. Rijkswaterstaat says it cannot yet say when systems will be fully restored.

The disruption is affecting multiple critical systems at once. Operators are experiencing problems controlling bridges, locks, and tunnels. The system used to place red X lane signals above highways is currently also out of service. The situation is compounded by hot weather, which had already prompted precautionary closures of several bridges.

Traffic monitoring has also been reduced. The agency’s traffic control centers are no longer receiving all highway camera feeds, making it harder to quickly detect motorists in distress or traffic incidents. In addition, several Rijkswaterstaat websites are partially or fully inaccessible and cannot be updated.

A spokesperson urged people on the water to take the disruption seriously and plan accordingly. The warning is especially urgent given that Code Orange weather alerts for thunderstorms are in effect this evening in Limburg, Noord-Brabant, Gelderland, and Overijssel. Officials said boaters should head home in time to avoid being stranded in front of a bridge or lock that may not be operating normally.