The Flemish government has reached agreement on future infrastructure investments during the course of this parliament. Flemish mobility and public works minister Annick De Ridder (Flemish nationalist N-VA) may spend 2.2 billion euros a year during this parliament.
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€2.2 bn a year for infrastructure works in Flanders: where will the money be spent?
Colin Clapson
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How this money will be spent exactly during the entire course of this parliament still needs to be decided, but the priorities are clear. Minister De Ridder faced difficult decisions because she had to consider requests from local authorities worth 7 billion euros, while she only has 2.2 billion at her disposal a year.
Maintenance - "We are doing a lot of catching up on maintenance, because we have a big backlog. Every year we are going to invest more to improve the state of our roads, tunnels and bridges."
Major infrastructure projects - "We are really looking at projects, which will have an enormous local impact: a North-South connection in Limburg (tunnels under Houthalen-Helchteren and a tram-bus between Hasselt and northern Limburg) or the Gentspoort project including new tram lines in and around Ghent”.
"In West Flanders, there is the sea lock in Zeebrugge, but also the renovation of the existing lock. We are also investigating in extra lanes that should be added to the E403 Zeebrugge to Tournai motorway".
"In East Flanders, there is a new link road in Sint-Niklaas, that grants western access to the Waasland port".
"In Flemish Brabant, there is the airport tram to Brussels Airport, the ring road around Brussels and the A8 road in Halle."
"And in Antwerp, a lot of work is planned including the Oosterweel Link completing the Antwerp ring road and the creation of extra container capacity in the port, though I don't think these are specific Antwerp works, because they provide added value for the whole of Flanders."
Cycling infrastructure - "We continue to maintain our effort of around 300 million in investments a year across Flanders. With the help of the provinces we are also increasing the cycling fund to €25 million a year." Ms De Ridder said she plans to unveil a new, separate Bicycle Master Plan by the end of this year. “We want 30 per cent of our traffic to be on bicycles by 2040.’
A cyclist bridge over the Scheldt costing 250 million euros is being built up in Antwerp.
Road safety and water management - "There is a huge list of projects to make our road network safer, e.g. by getting rid of black spots. We are also ramping up spending on maintenance dredging works, as this was underfunded."