Since 10 o'clock this morning it has been extremely busy on the roads to the coast. Not only on the E40 to Ostend, where there were delays of up to an hour-and-a-half due to traffic congestion, but also on the E403 from Kortrijk to Bruges and on the E34 towards Knokke.
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Hot Mayday weather encourages thousands to head for the coast (VIDEO)
Colin Clapson
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The hot weather and the public holiday are the perfect recipe for congestion. West Flemish tourist authority Westtoer expected 180,000 day trippers to head for the coast today. Many Germans are also on the motorway heading for the beaches on this extended weekend. In the Netherlands too it is the Mayday holiday.
Westtoer expects as many or more overnight stays this weekend as during the extended Easter weekend making 1 May the busiest day of 2025 so far.
It's the perfect cocktail for long traffic jams. Around noon, there was a whopping 250 kilometres of congestion. By 1.30pm, that had dropped to 175 kilometres. On the E40 from Brussels to Ostend, you still had to count on an extra hour and a half of travel time, on the E34 to Knokke half an hour and on the E403 from Kortrijk to Bruges also half an hour.
Drivers coming from the Kempen region first have to brave the traffic jams around Antwerp. To get to the Kennedy tunnel, you lose 1 hour. Drivers coming from the south of Limburg and Leuven via Brussels heading to the West faced traffic jams due to works on the E40 at Sterrebeek.
The biggest problems are expected to be over between 3pm and 4pm. Sunday afternoon and evening, many people will return and then there will be congestion in the other direction.
The Brussels ring road this morning (VIDEO).
Check out our traffic map for the latest updated information on congestion.
The situation at 2PM below.
In Ostend itself traffic ground to a halt in many of the traffic arteries surrounding the city centre. At one point police decided to stop all traffic from entering the centre of Ostend.