Permit for closing a public road

Published by:
Netherlands Enterprise Agency, RVO
Netherlands Enterprise Agency, RVO
Checked 10 Mar 2025
1 min read
Nederlandse versie

Do you want to close a public road in the Netherlands? For example in order to carry out work, or to organise an event? Then you may need a permit or exemption from the road authority for that particular road.

Find out more or arrange now

at your municipality, province, or water authority

The responsible road authority can either be the Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat, RWS), the municipal authority, or the provincial authority. You can look up the responsible authority on the Road Authority Map (in Dutch).

Do you want to carry out work that will cause disturbance to the functioning of a construction or object of great social importance? For example, work near an airport or railway? This is called an activity in a restricted area (beperkingengebiedactiviteit, in Dutch). The central government is nearly always the competent authority in such areas. You must comply with the rules of the Environmental Activities Decree (Besluit activiteiten leefomgeving, Bal, in Dutch).

Do the permit check and apply for an environment and planning permit

Do you want to know if you need an environment and planning permit for closing a public road? Or if you only need to submit a notification? Go to the Environment and Planning portal Omgevingsloket and do the permit check (vergunningcheck, in Dutch). If you enter all the information in the Omgevingsloket you will find out automatically if you need to apply for a permit to, or notify the competent authority and which authority this is. In some cases, you need to apply for a permit or notify more than one authority. You can submit your application or notification directly via the Omgevingsloket.

When you apply for a permit for closing a public road you have to pay municipal or provincial administrative charges (leges).

Notification

In some cases you only need to notify the responsible road authority. For instance, if the road is closed for a short period of time or if the road is only partially closed, such as for loading and unloading when you are moving house.

Online application procedure via Message Box

Message Box has not yet been linked to the Omgevingsloket. This means that you cannot apply for an exemption from the province of Noord-Brabant via Message Box. Message Box is a secure email system that enables you as an entrepreneur to exchange digital messages with Dutch government agencies.

This webpage is part of an EU quality network

Questions relating to this article?

Please contact the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, RVO