Ridderkerk

The Ring - Knooppunt Ridderkerk

Introduction - Visit 2002 with Ben - Discovery in 1998

Introduction

The Beneluxplein is the largest and highest set of fly-overs on the Ring of Rotterdam. This is how it looked during the construction. This view is from a calendar-page of the Ministry of Transport.

Nowadays this view is inaccessible. You only get a split second to look when you drive your car at 120km/hour. In the winter of 1998 I took some moments to explore it. But I've only scratched the surface of this heap of spaghetti.

2002 visit and Ben's courageous climb

Since my discovery of this place in 1998 I've been attracted to it. It's one of those places where you can find "wild" nature in the middle of civilization. Simply because no one cares about this place and because no one ever visits it. I can prove that. In 1998 I left a note inside one of the girders, with the address of my website. Now, in 2002 it's dusty and bleached, but still undisturbed. Just like on all my previous visits.

Wild nature - Everyone just speeds by ...

No one sees you here - Now imagine that the girders are hollow and that you can climb to the other side ...

And that's exactly what Ben did - Without any protection above a 10m drop - And the concrete is very, very smooth ...

In 1998 I had to infiltrate an appartment building to get a good view. Unfortunately it was a dark and bleak winter afternoon. You can see it in the low contrast of the pictures. Not even a large amount of image-processing could remedy this. This is the eastern part, in the direction of Ridderkerk.
Here you're looking at the middle part, with the high fly-over. You're looking North, in the direction of IJsselmonde.

To get under the fly-over you have to follow the bicycle path, and go south from the Van Brienenoordbridge. When you're under the fly-over you have to cross a mud-field and climb up a steep slope in full view of the passing cars. This will lead you to this peaceful spot.

It is possible to climb into the concrete girders. They're hollow and high enough to sit in. Theoretically it would be possible to crawl through to the next pylon. But you would cross the highway at a height of 10 meters or more. One slip and you would fall through the slit in the bottom. And there is no way to place protection. I've been thinking about this possibility a long time .....

2002 note: But as you've seen above Ben did it without any protection. But he says that he was a bit afraid while doing it.

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