Since the highway is directly in the path of urban and protected environmental areas in Roermond, the tunnel has been constructed to lead the traffic underneath East Roermond's urban area, the Roerdal environmental protected zone, and the Roer river.

That tunnel measures 400m in length and leads underneath the urban area of Swalmen, a village in the municipality of Roermond.

The estimated opening on 1 January 2008 was delayed as the involved parties constructing the tunnel underestimated the technical challenge.

However on 18 February 2008, the first day of operation, long traffic-jams were caused by technical problems[2] in the tunnels and in the 10 days after opening, 11 closures had occurred in both tunnels causing many traffic problems.

This final stage will cause a 9 week closure of the tunnel for extensive testing of all safety measures.