Working Together on the Future

We feel so proud standing here\Nafter years of hard work.
I can sum up this feeling in one word: Wow.
Not your everyday business.
Maastricht is now a socially undivided city.
I can tell you you're looking\Nat a very grateful mayor here.
Working on the future together\Nfrom infrastructure to area development.
When you initiate a project, you need\Nto get the local population involved.
They have a right to know what's happening\Nand if their best interests are being served.
These are all requirements\Nthat will make a project even better.
But a project actually changing\Na city's social fabric...
affecting people's itineraries\Nand whom they meet...
you wouldn't take that in account directly.\NIt was a genuine eye opener.
This new Green Carpet means a difference like\Nnight and day compared to earlier.
I now live next to a park instead\Nof a motorway without having to move.
I think that's quite something.
All traffic headed south bound from Amsterdam\Npassed through Maastricht...
approached the city\Nat a speed of 120 km/hour...
had to step on the brakes, because\Nthere would be six traffic lights...
forcing them to reduce their speed\Nto 50 kilometres.
What early days was an attractive boulevard\Nbecame more like a barrier...
separating two neighbourhoods.
A Maastricht University study of pupils\Nfrom a primary school adjacent to the A2...
showed these pupils were basically smoking\Nabout a pack of cigarettes each week.
Living there was unpleasant.
Where the motorway used to be,\Ntoday we have the Parklaan...
with the tunnel below it,\Ndown to 20 metres deep.
When the tunnel opened in 2016,\Nthis gave us the opportunity...
to redevelop this area.
In particular, we wanted to reconnect\Nthe neighbourhoods on either side.
Now these east-west-facing axes keep\Nthe area from becoming inward-looking...
Opening up neighbourhouds again\Nto make new connections...
with the rest of the city of Maastricht.
Too bad it's foggy, because usually you\Nhave this wonderful view of the Green Carpet.
Four parties were involved\Nin this project.
The municipalities\Nof Maastricht and Meerssen...
the province of Limburg,\Nand the Dutch government.
In terms of financial participation,\Nthe Dutch government contributed the most.
So you would expect\Nthat the one who pays, decides.
That wasn't the case here. Instead they chose\Nto operate based on an equal footing.
So the end result is put first, and\Neveryone's contribution is equally valuable.
It makes the decision-making\Nprocess highly balanced.
Because you cannot say that the road\Nis more important than housing,
or than improving accessibility. The one who\Npays didn't decide,
but the end result we wanted\Nto achieve together, steered all decisions.
This is a 3D cutaway of the project.\NHere you see the tunnel...
and the ground level above it,\Nthe Parklaan with its 2,000 trees...
and housing to the left and right.
First we tried to work out what we felt\Nwas the best solution...
how to design the tunnel\Nand the level above it.
Down to the very details\Nwe were planning and describing...
what type of solution we wanted\Nthe market for us to come up with.
Paper work was piling up, until\Na point was reached where I said...
that roles needed to be reversed.\NWe're good at defining social issues...
so ask the market to work out\Nwhat's the best engineering solution.
So how do you get plan implementation\Ncloser to plan development?
We haven't just told the builders the outlines\Nof what we want them to build...
but we also asked them\Nto take care of various other things.
The resulting 14 wishes were recorded\Nin an ambition document...
which wasn't an official document, but\Nit was crucial to the plan development.
It really raised the builders\Nto a new level.
Just look at all that\Nhas been done here.
A new living environment has been created,\Nspace for people to meet.
A new living environment that offers experiential\Nvalue,where you can exercise.
Quality of life for the city.
What's special about this project\Nis that even at an early stage...
the societal challenge was put first.
Rather than approaching it\Nas an infrastructural, or a capacity project...
they approached it as a societal challenge.
This is like a dream come true.\NWhat's wonderful to see is...
how well the idea of bringing two separated\Ncommunities back together was realised.
You now get people here\Ncoming from every direction...
to sit and socialize,\Nor to drink and eat something.
If the Green Carpet hadn't existed, if\Nthere had only been this sound barriers...
I would never have started this business here.
We would never have had this connection\Nwe wanted to create here.
construction work\Nbetween 2013-2016
Just about everything you see\Nin white styrofoam will be newly built.
The idea is to develop a whole\Nnew housing program for this area...
with a high volume of social housing\Nin certain parts of the neighbourhood.
We'll add about thousand\Naccommodations in the private sector,
in order to make this area more appealing.\NThis is not restricted for people...
moving up the housing ladder, but\Nalso from outside of the city.
It turns out that the Green Carpet has put\Nthe east of Maastricht on the map...
as a location where people from\Noutside are also keen to live.
So because of this tunnel this area has been put back\Non the map as an attractive place to live.
When budgeting an infrastructural\Ninvestment project...
we tend to adopt an narrow defined\Neconomic perspective.
Yet it turns out to be difficult to assess\Nbenefits for the quality of life beforehand.
Which was also clearly the case\Nwith this project.
The initial cost-benefit analysis put\Nthe benefits for quality of life for this project...
at 12 million Euros, I believe.
Within two years of the opening\Nof this tunnel...
the CPB published a report which showed\Nthat the benefits for quality of life in this case...
within a one-kilometre radius\Naround this tunnel...
were valued at 220 million Euros,\Nalmost twenty times as much...
as what had been calculated initially.
We're talking about benefits\Nfor quality of life as reflected...
in the increase in property value\Nof housing near the tunnel.
Before, I told people I lived\Nnext to the A2 motorway in Maastricht.
And that they probably passed my house\Nfrom or to their holiday destination.
It was truly a barrier in the city,\Nwhich now has been completely eliminated.
The other side has become closer.
For the future it will be of key interest\Nto include the social benefits dimension.
I believe that with every major project\Nwe should consider...
how to add up one\Nand one to get three.
Because the way I see it,\Nthis it not a road project...
but an area development project.
One in which every single factor\Nhas been taken into account.
Even involving the local priest.
The societal component\Nhas been given a prominent place here...
which makes this project unique\Nand also a great example.