Oosterweel works will begin in 2017

Works on the Oosterweel connection in Antwerp – a system of roads and tunnels intended to close the Antwerp Ring and ease traffic congestion – will begin in 2017, minister-president Geert Bourgeois and public works minister Ben Weyts have announced.

The project will be split into five parts, which will be contracted separately. The five projects include: works on the left bank of the Scheldt, or Linkeroever; a tunnel under the Scheldt; the Oosterweel interchange; a tunnel under the Albert Canal; an interchange with the Ring.

The cost of the entire project is €3 billion, according to Rudi Thomaes, chair of BAM, the project’s management company. The most expensive works are associated with the tunnel and the demolition of the viaduct near the Sportpaleis in Merksem, which together will cost about €1.75 billion. Preparatory works can begin this year, Weyts said.

The Oosterweel project has a long history of legal objections, as well as being the cause of a referendum put before the people of Antwerp that led to a plan for a system of tunnels rather than the government’s original plan for a kilometres-long viaduct.

“We can now proceed in the knowledge that each day of delay will cost €1 million,” Weyts said at a press conference yesterday with Bourgeois as well as Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever and Flanders’ budget minister, Annemie Turtelboom.

The government hopes to receive partial funding for the project from the EU’s fund for strategic investments, Bourgeois said. At the same time, a €250 million contribution from the city of Antwerp will no longer be required. The money will instead be used to finance a feasibility study for the enclosure of the Ring, in answer to activist groups such as Ringland and stRaten-generaal, which are concerned about the health and nuisance aspects associated with the project.

According to Manu Claeys, spokesperson for stRaten-generaal, detailed plans for a number of crucial aspects of the project still have to be presented. “All the most important decisions remain to be taken, including the compilation of an environmental impact report and the granting of building permits,” he said. “During the obligatory public enquiry, it will become clear to the people of Antwerp what the concrete impact will be for the entire route.”

photo, from left: Bart De Wever, Annemie Turtelboom, Geert Bourgeois and Ben Weyts announce the definitive start of Antwerp’s long-awaited Oosterweel project