Anyone who has nothing to do this weekend can take the car and test a new part of the Groningen Ring Road. Including the first new part of Julianaplein.
If you want the ‘scoop’: the first part of the new Julianaplein / Julianabrug will open to traffic on Saturday morning. It is not entirely clear what time exactly. Ring road builder Combination Herepoort must divert traffic in various places during the preceding King’s Night in order to demolish and complete other road sections.
She (re)opens many routes that night, but many new ones also close. The driveway from Hereweg was permanently closed on Thursday evening. The result was noticeable on Friday in extra crowds on the (Verlengde) Hereweg. Next week, the South Ring Road is expecting extra crowds everywhere, also because traffic has to get used to the new situations. All kinds of new temporary traffic measures have been taken.
New routes from Drachten and Zuidhorn
Reporters from this newspaper filmed the new routes from Drachten and Zuidhorn earlier this week. At the time, Herepoort was still busy completing all work on the routes from the N370 (Ring West) and A7/N7 West to Julianaplein.
Straight to Hoogezand will only be possible again in September. That is why, for the time being, road users will drive in 1 lane via the new Juliana Bridge onto the new traffic curve towards Assen (A28). Traffic from Drachten had been blocked since March, road users from Ring West had not been able to go directly across Vrijheidsplein to Assen for years.
This is now possible again, thanks to a spectacular bend. This means that road users will swing under the A7/N7 at the site of the former roundabout. The bend from Drachten towards Zuidhorn opened earlier and in no time a truck was on its side. The new arc is even sharper, which is why a speed limit applies here too.
What will change on the Ring this weekend?
Ring Zuid will open again on April 27 from Drachten and Zuidhorn to Assen via the new Julianaplein. On May 6, the route from Assen to Drachten and Zuidhorn (the first tunnel arch on Julianaplein) will follow.
Between April 27 and May 6, traffic from Assen to Zuidhorn can drive via other parts of the ring road (south, east and north). The South Ring from Euvelgunne junction to Julianaplein will be blocked during King’s Night. The complete closure of that section of road will follow on May 3, until September 2. Cars then drive through the sunken location.
Tags: Video scoop Ride routes open Saturday Groningen Ring spectacular bend
