With a length of around 1,600m per tube, the tunnel section built using mechanised tunnelling technology is the centrepiece of Rotterdamsebaan, the largest infrastructure project in The Hague.

The final breakthrough in the tunnel took place near the city centre of the Dutch coastal city after 12 months of work.

Tunnelling projects in the Netherlands face a special challenge because more than half of the country is below sea level. When mechanised tunnelling technology was used to build the two approximately 1,600m long tubes of the Victory Boogie Woogie Tunnel, the project partners were able to draw on their experience with this challenging ground. Between 2013 and 2015, the same Herrenknecht Mixshield had already excavated the Sluiskil Tunnel. Following the professional refurbishment of the TBM at the Herrenknecht plant in Kehl, the machine has again been put to use for the new Rotterdamsebaan road link.

From January to July 2018, the more than 1,600t and about 80m long borer produced the first of the two 1,600m long road tunnels with an inside diameter of 10.15m. Following disassembly, return transport and reassembly, the site crew then quickly excavated the second tube between September 2018 and January 2019. The reused TBM achieved outstanding advance rates of up to 16.9m per day at the tunnel project in The Hague. At the beginning of this year, the Combinatie Rotterdamsebaan joint venture celebrated the final breakthrough.

The project-specific machine design had already been adapted to the heterogeneous ground conditions with sand, silt and clogging-prone clay of the Sluiskil Tunnel. With an open spoke cutting wheel with direct material transport from the cutting wheel centre as well as the optimally adapted slurry circuit, more than 3,200m of new tunnel have been created in Holland's provincial capital in just 12 months.

In a reference to Dutch painter Piet Mondrian's work of art "Victory Boogie Woogie" from which the tunnel takes its name, the cutting wheel was painted in yellow, red and blue. Due to the low abrasiveness of the soil conditions, the colours were still clearly visible even after the final breakthrough.

The Victory Boogie Woogie Tunnel is an integral part of Rotterdamsebaan, a new road link between the Ypenburg interchange (A4/A13) and the ring road of The Hague. After commissioning in July 2020, the new road link will improve traffic for commuters in particular and significantly reduce congestion on the Utrechtsebaan and other traffic routes in the area.