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| Major junctions | |
| West end | Zeebrugge,Belgium |
| East end | Bad Oeynhausen, Germany |
| Location | |
| Countries |  Belgium Netherlands Germany |
| Highway system | |
European route E34 forms part of theUnited NationsInternational E-road network. It connectsZeebrugge, the majorseaport ofBruges, withBad Oeynhausen, aGerman spa town located beside theRiver Weser at the eastern edge ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia. At Bad Oeynhausen the E34 links to theE30, a major pan European east-west artery. It also passes, relatively briefly, throughthe Netherlands, following the southern by-pass ofEindhoven. Within Germany the route follows from south-west to north-east the full length ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia.
By the early 1990s, the western portion of the route, betweenAntwerp and the coast, was a dual carriageway with frequent intersections, the more busy of which were controlled by traffic lights and marked by 90 kilometres per hour (56 mph) speed limits. Starting at the Antwerp end, this part of the E34 has more recently been progressively upgraded with junctions either eliminated or else replaced by motorway-style intersections. The road is still of sub-motorway quality between the coast andZelzate, but to the east of the road tunnel under theGhent–Terneuzen Canal, the upgrade is virtually complete. The upgrade from National road to Autoroute quality has been reflected in a name change, from N49 to A11: in terms of national road numbers, as long as the upgrade remains incomplete, the two names are currently used interchangeably or together (N49-A11) when referring to the full length between Antwerp and Zeebrugge. In Belgium theE route numbers are given prominence at least equal to nationally assigned road numbers, so that in practice the road may be marked, using all three names, as the N49-E34-A11. Locally the road is often referred to more simply as the expressway(de expresweg).
In 2014 awildlife crossing named Kempengrens was realised over the E34 at the Belgian/Dutch border at Postel.[1]
The route skirts Antwerp using the southern R1 inner ring road which includes theKennedy Tunnel: this is closed to vehicles with certain classes of dangerous loads. These are required to divert onto the northern R2 outer ring road. To address the resulting delays, and because the inner southern ring route itself frequently becomes seriously congested, anorthern inner ring road for Antwerp is being planned.
The German portion of the E34 passes across the northern side of Germany'sRuhr industrial belt. Most of the road, which is currently being progressively upgraded, is now a six lane (three in each direction) highway. Access points are relatively close together in this section and the route - especially the section between Duisburg and Dortmund - is prone to delays resulting from traffic congestion.
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