Is covering the Antwerp Ring Road technically feasible?

The city council of Antwerp has written to Flemish mobility minister Hilde Crevits requesting a study on the technical feasibility of covering the Antwerp Ring Road. The minister has agreed to further research the idea.

The idea of enclosing parts of the Ring as part of the large-scale Oosterweel construction project was launched recently by the activist group Ringland. It has gone from a far-fetched notion to an idea widely under consideration by several political parties from government and opposition. The benefits of covering the planned extension, which will connect the Ring Road to the port and to the E19, are a significant decrease of both noise and air pollution and an increase in usable urban space.

Crevits said she had “no problem” looking into the issue and pointed out that the current plan for the Oosterweel connection, which is being developed and led by the Flemish government agency Beheersmaatschappij Antwerpen Mobiel (BAM), includes several spots where enclosure would be possible. That would include the new traffic system near the Sportpaleis, she said, where the existing viaduct would be demolished, according BAM’s plan.

The enclosure of the Ring, being taken seriously by politicians if the costs involved are not exactly welcomed, has also met with support from the public. Earlier this month, some 10,000 people took part in a march and a festival in support of Ringland’s plan. Two other community groups, stRaten-generaal and Ademloos, also support a plan to cover the extension of the Ring.

Like Ringland, Ademloos was launched specifically to work on the issue of the Oosterweel connection. StRaten-generaal and Ademloos were responbile for the referendum put to Antwerp voters in 2009 on whether the connection should be a bridge or a tunnel (the tunnel won).

The decision and terms of any feasibility study, however, will be the responsibility of the mobility minister in the next Flemish government, to form after the elections later this month.

The three community groups, meanwhile, have gathered the 15,000 signatures necessary on a petition to obtain a hearing in the Flemish Parliament. Aside from the question of enclosing the Ring, the groups still have problems with the government’s revised plan for the Oosterweel connection.

Like the feasibility study, the activists’ hearing will take place some time after the inauguration of the new Flemish parliament following the May 25 elections.

This week Flemish liberals Open Vld and green party Groen both requested clarity on the number of lanes that would result from the plan in certain areas. Yesterday, Open VLD called for the director of BAM, Jan Van Rensbergen, to step down because of what party leader Annemie Turtelboom called “transparency and communication problems” with the organisation.

photo: Rudi Thomaes, chair of the board of BAM, during a press conference yesterday in Antwerp 

©Jonas Roosens / BELGA