Wikipedia
The Roertunnel is a 2.45 km long land tunnel in Roermond, Netherlands. Currently it is the longest land tunnel for road traffic in the Netherlands and upon final completion, it will be compliant to the 2014 safety standard for tunnels in the Netherlands.
The tunnel is a part of the A73-south highway, connecting the A73-north in Venlo to the A2 near Echt. Since the highway is directly in the path of urban and protected environmental areas in Roermond, the tunnel has been constructed to lead the traffic underneath East Roermond's urban area, the Roerdal environmental protected zone, and the Roer river. The tunnel consists of three tubes. One tube contains the northbound traffic, one tube contains the southbound traffic and a tube in the middle functions as an emergency escape route. The maximum speed inside the tunnels is 100 km/h.
A little north of the Roertunnel, a sister tunnel, The Swalmentunnel, has been constructed according to the same construction principles. That tunnel measures 400m in length and leads underneath the urban area of Swalmen, a village in the municipality of Roermond.
Once the tunnel is fully opened, one of the entry ramps in Roermond will have to be redesigned, because according to safety regulations the final entry on the highway must be 300m ahead of the tube of a tunnel, and the entry to the southbound tube in the Roertunnel ends only a few meters ahead of the tunnel. The plan is to redirect all highway traffic to the left lane before entering the tunnel, so that all traffic on the entry ramp can use the right lane for the complete length of the tunnel before merging with the rest of the traffic upon exit of the tunnel.