Hans van Heeswijk was member of a team of architects that designed a series of works throughout the country for Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch Department of Water Management and Public Works. Driving through the Netherlands, the results can be seen along the A15, A16, A27, A30, A50, A57 and A58.

The idea was to involve architects in the design of viaducts and bridges, increasingly the domain of civil engineers. The creativity of architects and urban planners can have a powerful influence on the aesthetic and environmental quality of civil construction, and thus on the experience of driving on the road or making a boat trip one on the hundreds of waterways that ply this flat country.

The art of the engineer not only lifts one traffic sort over another but can also raise the surrounding landscape to a higher plane. That is money well spent. After all, what do we have on our Euro banknotes? Exactly: bridges.