Drivers trapped for hours as road agency conducts surveys in Aarhus

Drivers in Aarhus faced hours-long gridlock on Thursday after the Danish Road Directorate closed a westbound lane on Marselis Boulevard for geotechnical surveys tied to a planned billion-kroner tunnel project, DR reports.

Vibeke Welle Hansen was among those caught in the standstill. She spent three and a half hours covering the final five kilometres home after finding the parking lot at Tangkrogen completely congested when she returned to her car at 15:30.

“It was total chaos,” she said. Unable to move, she walked to Marselisborg Harbour to escape the heat. When she returned 45 minutes later, the traffic had not budged. It then took her an hour just to exit the parking lot. By then, her air conditioning had drained the battery, forcing her to turn it off.

“It was exhausting and very stressful, especially with the heat. By the time I got home, I had a headache and was dehydrated,” she said.

Project manager Michael Schmidt Vosgerau of the Road Directorate acknowledged the disruption. “What happened yesterday helps no one,” he said, noting the stretch is already vulnerable due to peak-hour congestion, ferry traffic from Molslinjen, and harbour activity, all funnelled into fewer lanes.

The agency is now reviewing how to conduct future surveys with less impact on traffic, including possible signal adjustments. In the meantime, it has ordered the contractor to reopen the closed westbound lane on Marselis Boulevard.