Reducing disruption from the Botlekbrug and Spijkenisserbrug bridges in Rotterdam using data

Together with NGinfra partners, we investigated whether data could help optimise the operation of the Botlekbrug and Spijkenisserbrug bridges. Our aim is to minimise the impact of bridge openings on all modes of transport: shipping, freight trains and road traffic.

Our first proof of concept (PoC) showed that this is possible and could also reduce CO2 emissions. We demonstrated that we can simulate the impact of a bridge opening on congestion. Our model shows that an average bridge opening during the evening rush hour causes more than 100 vehicle-hours lost and over 1 ton of CO2 emissions due to congestion. Moving the bridge openings in June from the evening rush hour to off-peak hours would save approximately 4,500 vehicle-hours and 24 ton of CO2 emissions.

In the longer term, we want to develop an integrated traffic management system to support bridge operators. Based on this data, the system would display the optimal time to open a bridge, minimising its overall impact.