Due to the positive effect of lighting on road safety and the perception thereof, the Minister intends to switch the lighting on again in the evening and at night. In doing so, she will take into account the Nature Conservation Act.

Process

The Nature Conservation Act prohibits activities that lead to the deliberate disturbance of protected animal species and / or damage to breeding sites or resting places of these species. Switching lighting on or off could lead to such a disturbance.

This makes it necessary to test the effects when lighting is switched on again. It is therefore necessary to identify which species are located where and whether this creates a bottleneck. In the event of a bottleneck, it is necessary to first take mitigating or compensating measures for protected animal species.

Care is therefore required when switching on the lighting again. I have Rijkswaterstaat investigate on location by means of quickscans where so-called hotspots of protected species are that create a bottleneck. The quickscans for species can only be carried out in certain seasons as the animal habitats change seasonally.

Within six months, all quick scans will be carried out along the 550 kilometers of motorway involved. Rijkswaterstaat expects that no bottleneck will be found at the majority of the locations under investigation.
In those cases, the lighting can be switched on again here.

For the locations where a potential bottleneck is found, additional field research (which is completed in a maximum of 12 months) must be carried out. If no definitive bottleneck is eventually found here, the lighting can still be switched on here.

If there is a definitive bottleneck, then it is necessary to look into it
whether mitigating / compensating measures can be taken.
If possible, these measures will be weighed against the benefits in the field of road safety.