College opts for tunnel under Antwerp Scheldt quays without support from Vooruit: “We want car-free quay road, this plan is not possible” | Antwerp
AntwerpThe bullet is through the church: there will be at the earliest from 2027 a car and bicycle tunnel under the Scheldt quays, at Steenplein and Suikerrui. This was decided by the Antwerp city council on Friday. Or better: N-VA and Open Vld. Coalition partner Vooruit is against the project. “We cannot support this plan,” said the socialists disappointed.
The framework in the plans for the so-called ‘Via Sinjoor’. That is the pedestrian boulevard between Central Station and the Scheldt quay and has been paving for years. Some parts of the pedestrian axis, such as the Opera Square, have already been completed. The city will now engage in the ‘missing links’.
Via Sinjoor
The final piece of Via Sinjoor is the area around Steenplein. There, the city plans a free passage for pedestrians across the Scheldt quays. Car traffic and fast bicycle traffic along the quays therefore go underground, along a car and bicycle tunnel (officially: ‘deepened Kaaiweg’), the council decided on Friday. The entrance to the Grote Markt car park, which causes a lot of traffic nuisance, also goes underground. A bicycle parking area with 500 places is being developed in the tunnel. With an option for 300 additional parking spaces.
Defeat
The fact that the ‘deepened quay road’ – a feasibility study Opts for a 210-metre-long tunnel with an extra parking lot (cost: at least 56 million euros) – has been decided by coalition party Vooruit. The socialists are anything but enthusiastic about the project, especially because they have major mobility problems in the strictly dynamic.
If you want to reconnect the city to the water and you want a safe zone for pedestrians, then make the quays over the length of the car-free zone. This plan does consume it. We cannot support that.
According to Vooruit, whose planned continuation by aldermen Jinnih Beels, Tom Meeuws and Karim Bachar at the college, through traffic does not belong on the Scheldt quays and the tunnel mouths will form a new barrier between the city and the Scheldt. “If you want to reconnect the city with the water and you want a safe zone for pedestrians, then you make the quays car-free along their entire length. This plan does consume it. We cannot support that,” said chair of the Antwerp department Tatjana Scheck after the lecture. (read more below the photo)
“Wider story than tunnel”
The resistance of Vooruit in the college does not upset Mobility Alderman Koen Kennis (N-VA). “Our coalition partner has reservations, but I am convinced that they can be clarified. The council has today made a decision in a broader story of residential areas and parking loops and of Via Sinjoor. This was also stated in the administrative agreement. The tunnel under the quays is important for road safety above ground. It is not at all a mobility project from fifty years ago, but a modern one, with sensible solutions. This is also a project of urban renewal. Steenplein will offer much more than today. It comes with an expensive price tag, but there are still projects in the interest of vulnerable road users. Just think of the bicycle bridge over the Scheldt.”
Groen also disseminated a response to what the opposition party said about the “crazy plans” for the Scheldt quays on Friday afternoon. Municipal councilor Ilse Van Dienderen: “With the current plans, more cars are once again being lured into the center, with even more parking spaces and concrete. That is not a modern mobility policy. If the city council wants to introduce an actual mobility policy, it will opt for a traffic-calmed layout at the Quays with priority for soft road users and public transport.”
Meirbrug low traffic
Another important obstacle on the Via Sinjoor is the intersection on the Meirbrug, which is currently busy, unclear and unsafe. The part that connects the Meir via the Boerentoren with the Groenplaats will be car-free, the council decided on Friday. “The aim is to set up the 16th-century center of the city as a residential area”, it says. “That means that local traffic is still welcome – think of residents and people who only use public parking spaces. Motorized traffic will move in one direction from Huidevettersstraat to Kammenstraat. The through traffic will move via the tunnels under Operaplein or via the quays.”
The reconstruction of the Meirbrug includes both supralocal and local streets and is partly covered by the city and partly by the Antwerp district. The preliminary draft is still on the agenda of the district council in mid-August.
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