The Dutch Multi Year Programme on Infrastructure and Transport (MIT) 2000-2004 gives an overview of infrastructure projects that will be planned or built in the years to come. Several infrastructure projects in the report deal with environmental issues. There are projects that can improve the environmental quality (Passage A2 Maastricht, spoorzone Delft) and projects that can harm this quality (A4 Midden-Delfland). Tunnels are usually proposed to solve or prevent environmental damage. The environmental tunnel is named a `social tunnel'. An analysis of all yearly MIT reports since 1993 shows that the national government selects the inexpensive projects for construction. This policy really has to change, because most inexpensive projects have been constructed and many expensive projects, including the `social tunnel', are still on the waiting list. The government has asked private companies to invest money in infrastructure. This paper shows that private companies are not interested in financing `social tunnels'. Private companies can make a profit by levying toll and selling the land above the tunnel. However, these profits are insufficient to cover the cost of the tunnel. It is concluded that `social tunnels' must be paid by the national government. (A)
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