Oosterweelconnection

The Oosterweel Link is a long running proposed construction project intended to complete the Antwerp Ring Road. Beheersmaatschappij Antwerpen Mobiel (Holding Company Antwerp Mobility - BAM), a Flemish Government controlled body is responsible for the project realisation. The Oosterweel link will connect the Expressweg (E34) near Blokkersdijk via a toll tunnel (the Oosterweeltunnel) underneath the Scheldt, leading to a dual-layered tunnel under the Albert Canal and connecting with the R1 Antwerp ring road at Merksem and Deurne.

The Flemish Government wishes to improve access to the city of Antwerp as well as to the port, to relieve traffic congestion on the Antwerp Ring Road and to reduce "rat running" commuter traffic in the larger urban area.

The Oosterweel Link is one element, the largest by cost, of a general Antwerp Masterplan for transport. The Masterplan consists of sixteen infrastructure projects for roads, waterways and inland shipping, public transport, docks and solutions for pedestrians and cyclists. These Masterplan projects are intended to improve quality of life, traffic safety and mobility throughout the urban area, the port and surrounding towns and districts.

In his opening speech on October 4, 1996 Camille Paulus, governor of the province of Antwerp at the time, mentioned the 'multimodal traffic model', a computer model developed to study mobility in the Antwerp area. At the governor’s request, this model was used to elaborate a solution to congestion problems in and around Antwerp. From this model, it was deduced that an additional river crossing would lead to a spectacular amelioration of mobility and practically relegate congestion on the Antwerp ring road to the past. Eddy Peetermans, who was responsible for the realization of this traffic model for the province of Antwerp, presented as the solution a 5 km long underground road – a tunnel. Because of financial restrictions, this would take the form of a combination of demand control measures (toll, communal traffic etc.) and demand driven measures (more infrastructure). Completing the Ring Road by means of a northern addition would be the only way to prevent total traffic chaos in 2010, was the engineer’s conclusion at the time.

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