Ring decision splits Brussels ministers

A decision by the Flemish government to go ahead with plans to extend the width of the Brussels Ring has split the Brussels regional government, with secretary of state for mobility Bruno De Lille of Groen, who opposes the plan, at odds with his coalition colleague Brigitte Grouwels (pictured with De Lille), minister for transport and public works who gave the plan her   enthusiastic support.

According to De Lille, the plan will cost millions for a result that is no more than short-term. “It will also bring a halt to the positive dynamic growing in and around Brussels,” he said. “It's already so enormously difficult to get people out of their cars.”

The plan aims to split through traffic and local traffic on the Ring by adding lanes. The Zaventem zone runs from the Ring junction with the E40 in the direction of Leuven to the junction with the E19 direction Mechelen, and would add two lanes in each direction for local traffic as well as the existing three lanes for through traffic. Work on this zone will a cost €98 million and begin in 2016. No date has yet been set for work on the North zone,  from the Ring junction with the E40 direction Ghent up to and including the Vilvoorde viaduct, which will cost an estimated €230 million.

The Brussels government has called, so far without success, for an inter-regional task force to be set up to consider all aspects of the plan. Although the Ring is in Flanders' territory, Brussels argues the extension plans will have a major effect on traffic in the capital.

Grouwels, a party colleague of Flemish minister-president Kris Peeters as well as public works minister Hilde Crevits, said the plan was “an important step towards the better regulation of traffic on the Ring. Poor traffic conditions are not only bad for the environment but also an enormous cost to the economy of the city.” And she echoed a stress laid by Crevits on improved public transport and conditions for cyclists.

In addition to a split between parties, the Flemish decision has also created a fissure within the Flemish socialist party sp.a: ministers Pascal Smet, Freya Van den Bossche and Ingrid Lieten are in favour of the Ring plan within the Flemish government; in Brussels, meanwhile, the Flemish socialists led by fraction leader Jef Van Damme are against.