In 2019, the Dutch government decided that the 29 bridges over the canal were not to be raised further to allow inland navigation with higher containers, as the costs would not outweigh the benefits. The bridges now all have a clearance of 9.10 metres, which is the height needed to put four containers on top of each other on a barge. But in container shipping, a new type of container is emerging that is thirty centimetres higher. This means that with four stacked high, the bridges have to be raised a minimum of 1.20 metres. For the sake of safety, 1.40 metres of elevation is taken as the starting point for new bridges are built or replaced.The firm Arcadis has scrutinised all bridges. Between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, it involves 24 fixed bridges for cars and bikes, five fixed railway bridges and two movable bridges in the Port of Rotterdam. So far, even the newest bridges such as in the A9/A1 (2015), the Nigtevecht cycle bridge (2018) and the railway bridge near Utrecht (2017) are still set at 9.1 metres above the water.To give those new higher containers ample space, all bridges will have to be raised. For most bridges, it is theoretically possible to jack them up. However, the road will then have to be closed for a while. That cost is estimated at €266 million.The big problem is with railway bridges. Jacking up means a railway line will be out of use for a long time, which is unacceptable. Therefore, when replacing it, the strategy is already to build a new railway bridge next to the existing one. This is costly, very costly in fact. New Muider Rail bridges cost €442 million. New bridges in the Amsterdam-Utrecht line 450 euros and in the line to Gouda 485 million. A tram bridge has to be raised for 43 million.Together with the road bridges, the bill would come to €1.3 billion. This is offset by extra revenue for inland shipping and profits from fewer containers on the road. But those gains amount to only 58 to 69 million, leaving a deficit of €1.2 billion. "Large-scale raising of bridges is therefore out of the question," the minister of traffic and infrastructure, Cora van Nieuwenhuizen argued.
