On Monday, the official opening of the River Park took place: Nijmegen has a new piece of land on the Waal banks. The project creating it, called ‘Ruimte aan de Waal’, won the Waterfront Center Award in 2011 and is internationally prestigious. Radboud University might get a location at the island in the future.

During the day, people were welcome to stroll around the new island, and there was a light show on the water at night. Fountains in all colors launched water from the river, and hundreds of visitors stood on the new river quay, looking at the Nijmegen skyline.

On Monday, the new River Park was opened. With that, Lent now has its own ‘Waalkade’. City island Veur-Lent and secondary channel de Spiegelwaal give the river Waal more room in the Nijmegen ‘bottle neck’. When water levels are high, the Waal thankfully uses this room. The city island already opened in December and can expect a lot of people in spring, since the islands created many new Waal beaches.

Whether Radboud University gets a location on the island remains unclear. Rowing association Phocas is hoping to get a water sport center at the Spiegelwaal. Wilma de Koning already launched a new boat on behalf of the Executive Board, called Raaf (Raven).

On the air photo, taken from the Lent side of the river, the university is already represented. On the top left, the Erasmus building shows on the horizon./ Mathijs Noij, Annemarie Haverkamp