Projects: Roads

Objective 
The following objectives are pursued in this project:
- Guaranteeing the accessibility of city and port
- Relieving the southern Ring road
- Good lorry link for through traffic even during disasters on the southern Ring road
- Increasing traffic safety

Description
The Oosterweel link or closing of the small Ring road (R1) around Antwerp extends over a length of approx. 10 km and makes a link between a new traffic exchange to be built between the R1 (Kennedy tunnel) – E17 – N49 on the left bank through a new Scheldt river bank link (Oosterweel tunnel) and Oosterweel node on the right bank, with the R1 – E19 – A12 on the right bank. 


Status 
With its decision of 22 September 2010 the Flemish Government opted to close the ring around Antwerp with cut & cover tunnels. It was also decided to create an extra link between the E19 South and the E313/E34, a link that will also be made with cut & cover tunnels under the existing R11. It perfectly links up with the A102, creating a by-pass around the east of Antwerp. Thanks to this new infrastructure it will no longer be necessary to widen the existing R1 ringroad in the South. 

The tunnels will be EUR 352.7 mio more expensive than the previous bridge alternative. This extra cost will be compensated by investments of the City of Antwerp and the Port of Antwerp. The total cost for the Oosterweel link is now set at EUR 3.2 billion.

 
History
On 3 March 2010 the Flemish Government reached an agreement on a new, more ambitious Masterplan 2020, respecting the vision, mission and objectives of the initial Masterplan Mobility Antwerp, but with an even more multimodal, holistic approach for a better mobility, livability and enhanced road security. The agreement included the decision to complete the ringroad around Antwerp with the so-called Oosterweel-route and go for the use of tunnels on the right bank rather than for a bridge, if feasable within the same time frame and budget.

The Flemish Government asked the experts, engineers and external advisors of BAM to work this out by the summer of 2010. A steering committee, consisting of the respective ministers,the chairman of the board of directors of BAM and two representatives of the Antwerp city council, will closely follow the process. 

On 16 September 2005 the Flemish Government decided on the exact route for the Oosterweel connection. Out of all possible options the so-called 'optimised middle route' was chosen, as it met all targets from an economic, mobility and environmental perspective. Following the Environmental Impact Report (EIR), the EIR Project procedure for the Oosterweel link has been approved as well. The Regional Environment Execution Plan was approved by the Flemish Government on 16 June 2006.

On behalf of the Flemish Government ARUP UK and SUM Research did further research for the Oosterweel link in the first half of 2009. By the end of March 2009 the Government decided that:
- the Master Plan with its 16 projects remained one and undivided;
- expand the ATM-system (automatic traffic management) around Antwerp;
- look for solutions of current bottlenecks on E17 from Sint-Niklaas to Kennedytunnel, as well as the Tijsmanstunnel;
- no toll in Kennedytunnel and tunnel can only be used by cars; lorries are forbidden;
- Antwerp needs a third crossing of the river Schelde with a capacity of 2x3;
- BAM can start the building permit procedure;
- Antwerp gets an extra 120 days to write its advice for the building permit;
- restructuring of BAM to allow for ESA-neutral investments.

Financing Structure

Flanders opts to finance this investment by a joint venture between government and private companies (Public Private Partnership). Investment costs are paid back over time by toll collection.

Execution period 
In September 2004 six construction groups responded to the call for tenders for the construction of the Oosterweel link. By the end of December 2004 four were withheld for further negotiations. By Friday 23 June the prequalified construction groups had to hand in their first offer. First offers were received from THV Antwerpse Bouwwerken, THV Loro and THV Noriant. Two of these groups, THV Loro and THV Noriant, moved to the next step of the procedure. The Quality Chamber then looked at the ambition level of the architectural designs. They unanimously concluded that only one of the remaining construction groups, THV Noriant, reached the minimal ambition level.  Based amongst others on this advice, the Board of Directors of BAM decided on 17 November 2006 to continue negotiations with THV Noriant only. On 1 October 2007 THV Noriant handed in its Best & Final Offer (BAFO). On 21 December the Board of Directors agreed to allow Noriant to move up to the next step in the procedure as preferred bidder. 

In April 2009 BAM and Noriant signed a Design Sign Off (DSO) for the realisation of the Oosterweel link for a cost of EUR 2.2 bio (price level of 1 January 2009).

After the referendum of 2009, further negotiations with Noriant have been temporarily suspended.
With the decision of the Flemish Government of 22 September 2010, the situation will be reevaluated and future steps with Noriant will be taken accordingly.

Toll rates for the Oosterweel Link
In its decision of 22 July 2005, The Flemish Region agreed to the toll rates that were proposed by BAM, and which are as follows (on the basis of indexation at a rate of 2%):

Toll rate 2012
- Passenger cars: €2.44
- Lorries from 3.5 tons to 12 tons: €15.85
- Lorries over 12 tons (1) €15.85 – 19.02


(1) The Flemish Government has proposed a bracket for lorries over 12 tons.

The European toll directive applies to the Trans-European Road Network (TEN), and is therefore applicable to the Oosterweel Link. The directive states that the toll rates used should be based on the principle of recovery of the capital expenditure of the related infrastructure.