A4 motorway (Netherlands)

A4 motorway
Rijksweg 4
Motorways in the Netherlands with A4 bolt
Route information
Part of E 19 / E 30 / E 312
Maintained by Rijkswaterstaat
Length:	119 km (74 mi)
Existed:	25 June 1938 – present
Northern segment
North end:	E 19 / E 22 / A10 in Amsterdam
Major junctions:	A9 near Badhoevedorp A5 near Hoofddorp A44 near Leimuiden E 30 / A12 near The Hague E 19 / A13 near The Hague E 25 / A20 in Rotterdam
South end:	A15 in Rotterdam
Southern segment
North end:	A29 / A59 near Heijningen
Major junctions:	E 312 / A58 in Bergen op Zoom E 312 / A58 near Woensdrecht
South end:	A12 near Zandvliet (Belgium)
Location
Provinces:	North Holland, South Holland, North Brabant
Highway system
Roads in the Netherlands Motorways E-roads Provincial City routes ← A2 A5 →

The A4 Motorway, also called Rijksweg 4, is a motorway in the Netherlands, running from Amsterdam southwards through the cities of The Hague and Rotterdam, to the Belgian border near Zandvliet, north of the city of Antwerp. The A4 is divided into two parts: the first and longest part from Amsterdam to the A15 near the city of Rotterdam. The second part starts near Heijningen, where the A29 and the A4 meets. This section travels to the Belgian border. Between the A29 near the village of Klaaswaal, south of Rotterdam, and the interchange Sabina, where the A4-A29 meets the A59, the route is numbered A29. Three European routes run concurrent with this highway at some point, E19, E30 and E312. The highway is 119 kilometres (74 mi) long.

There are no authorized plans for the missing link between Pernis (south of Schiedam and west of Rotterdam) and the A29 near Klaaswaal, though right-of-way has been acquired for the future A29 interchange with the A4.

The A4 begins in the province of North Holland in the southeastern part of the city of Amsterdam at a directional T-interchange, called Knooppunt De Nieuwe Meer, with the orbital road A10, E 19 changes road from the A10 that arrives from the east onto A4, and at this interchange, the E 22 starts its run to the north concurrent with A10. Even though A4 starts at this interchange on A10, A4 has priority from the eastern direction toward this interchange as entering onto A4 from the east does not require a turn, in contrast to staying on A10 which requires a turn to the right. From the north, staying on the A10 and entering A4 both require a turn. From the interchange De Nieuwe Meer, the road travels to the southeast, concurrent with some train tracks that run in between both directions of this motorway. After some 4 kilometers, the road intersects A9 at the partial cloverleaf interchange Badhoevedorp. After leaving this interchange, the concurrent train tracks travels underground southwards towards Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The A4 continues its route towards Schiphol and by doing so enters the 650 meter long Schiphol tunnel underneath an airplane runway and two taxiways. Exit 2 of this motorway serves the airport. Hereafter, another taxiway bridges crosses the A4. Southeastern of Schiphol, A5 joins the A4 at an incomplete interchange De Hoek. This interchange does not have a ramp from the A5 to the northbound lane of the A4, because the A9 already serves getting traffic from A5 to A4 in both directions. Shortly before leaving the province of North Holland and entering South Holland, the A44 branches off the A4 at the interchange Burgerveen. This interchange is incomplete as well as you can only travel onto the A44 from Amsterdam. The road crosses the Ringvaart, using aqueduct the Ringvaartaquaduct, and so enters South Holland. From here, the train tracks went underground, shortly before Schiphol join the A4 again and runs concurrent with the A4 up to exit 6. At the municipality line between Leiderdorp and Leiden, the road uses aqueduct the Limesaquaduct to travel under the river the Oude Rijn. The A4 now approaches The Hague. In the Vinex-location Leidschenveen-Ypenburg in the municipality of The Hague, the motorway gets to stack interchange Prins Clausplein with the A12 and the E 30 and interchange Ypenburg with the A13 and the E 19. From the first of the two interchanges, the E 30 joins the A4 from the A12 from the east. At the second interchange, the E 30 (A13) continues to run concurrent with the A4, a motorway that starts at this interchange and connects The Hague with Rotterdam as well. In between these two interchanges the A4, the E 19 and the E 30 all run concurrent and on this location, there is a basketweave exchange. The outerlanes of the basketweave are for connecting the A13 and the stack exchange ramps from and to the A12, the inner lanes are the continuing the A4. Leaving the basketweave interchange, the A4, now concurrent with the E 30, continues southwards around Delft towards southeastern Delft, where it continues partially below ground level through the Midden-Delfland region. It then enters the Rotterdam region at a semi-directional T-interchange, called Kethelplein, where the motorway travels to the south while the A20 concurrents with the E 25, travels from the east to the west. When traveling under some train tracks, the road approaches exit 16, which allows access to east Vlaardingen, as well as west Schiedam. This exit is special as the northern exit and southern entrance first travels parallel with the A4 through the Beneluxtunnel under the river Nieuwe Maas. This also results in more lanes for drivers to use, which helps diminish traffic congestion, since the ramps connects to the A4 on the southern side of the Nieuwe Maas. They shortly after branch off and enter interchange Benelux, an incomplete T-interchange with only a southbound exit and a northbound entrance, named 17a as to not confuse drivers since the previous exit on A15 to the west is already exit 17. This interchange is the southern terminus of this segment of the A4 and the road continues both west and east as the A15.