Activists file suit against Oosterweel project

The activist organisation Ringland, launched to campaign for the enclosure of the Antwerp Ring, has lodged an official complaint against the regional planning order (GRUP) for the Oosterweel link. The link is intended to complete the circle of the Ring Road. According to Ringland, GRUP makes a complete enclosure of the Ring impossible.

The Oosterweel link has been a political problem ever since the original presentation of the construction options in 2000. Eventually, it was decided that a long, two-tier viaduct would pass through the docks area in the centre of greater Antwerp, which became known as the Lange Wapper after a figure in local folklore.

Following opposition from two protest groups, Ademloos and Straten-Generaal, a referendum was held in 2006, in which the people of Antwerp voted in favour of an alternative plan where the viaduct was replaced by a tunnel.

That decided, alternative routes for the link were proposed by the two groups to move the link outside of the city centre, where they say it will cause severe pollution problems because of fine particulates.

The intention of the Oosterweel project is to close the circular road in order to ease congestion both in the centre of the city and on other parts of the Ring, by allowing traffic from the left bank of the Scheldt new routes to the Netherlands and the north, and to Germany and the east.

Ringland is calling for the new link to be completely enclosed, cutting down greatly on pollution and noise, and providing a vast amount of new urban space, which could be used, it says, for parks, sports and leisure facilities.

The plan quickly caught the imagination of the public: A petition last May gathered the 15,000 signatures needed to obtain a hearing in the Flemish Parliament, and a march in favour attracted 10,000 people.

Ringland’s complaint calls for the Oosterweel project to be suspended while feasibility studies are carried out on the order of Hilde Crevits, mobility and public works minister in the last Flemish administration.

photo courtesy Ringland