Road management and maintenance

We have four road managers in the Netherlands: the national government, the provinces, the municipalities and the water boards. We currently manage about 244 kilometers of polder and dike roads.

Administrator of levees and thus of levee roads

The Water Board's role as road manager originated in the past. As administrator of dikes, the water board also became administrator of the road that was on the dike. Only in the provinces of North Holland, South Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht are water boards also road administrators. In the rest of the Netherlands, roads are managed by the central government, the province and municipalities. In 2014, our board determined that the water board should focus primarily on functional water tasks: ensuring safe dikes and clean and sufficient water. Road management is therefore not a core task for HHNK. See the page Road transfer.

Our tasks

The roads we manage are mostly outside built-up areas. And almost all of them belong to the so-called "access roads. These are local roads with a speed limit of 60 km/hour. We also manage everything along the roads, such as bicycle paths, sidewalks, verges, light poles, trees and (road) ditches. Furthermore, we are responsible for the complete layout of the roads.