Losing up to 1h15 in traffic jams on Brussels Ring

These days, it is best to avoid the Leonard intersection on the Brussels Ring with the E411 highway and an even broader area around it in Tervuren. Due to the work on the Leonard Tunnel, there is a lot of traffic congestion around the tunnel complex, which will cause you to lose at least one hour and 15 minutes between Waterloo and Zaventem in the morning and up to 15 minutes in the evening.

The tunnels at the Leonard intersection have been undergoing significant renovations since April 2023. In fact, from last Wednesday evening until Monday morning, the tunnel was entirely closed to traffic.

Only a single lane

From Monday morning, traffic was again possible, but only on a single lane, on both sides of the roadway. Moreover, motorists from Auderghem on the E411 cannot get onto the RO toward Waterloo from the Léonard intersection.

That new traffic situation led to traffic jams of almost 1h15 between Waterloo and Tervuren, in the direction of Zaventem, on Monday morning. In the other direction, it took up to 30 minutes longer between Wezembeek-Oppem and Tervuren.

In the evening, it took up to 45 minutes longer to travel between Waterloo and Tervuren on the outer Ring Road took up to 30 minutes to travel between Sint-Stevens-Woluwe and the Léonard intersection on the inner Ring Road.

New closure

Moreover, the NMBS/SNCB and Infrabel have deployed two extra trains in the morning and two at the end of the afternoon between Nivelles and Brussels-Luxembourg to relieve car traffic.

A new closure of the ring tunnel is planned from Friday at 8:30 p.m. to 21 May at 5:30 a.m. In addition, from mid-June, the Waterloo-Auderghem left turn will also be closed until the end of October, simultaneously with the closure of the Auderghem-Waterloo right turn.

Motorists will then be asked to make a U-turn on the E411 to enter Brussels. As with the closures of the Ring tunnels last week and starting this Friday, the Flemish authorities will recommend that motorists drive to Maleizen to turn around to avoid having too many cars and heavy goods vehicles circulating in the small town of Jezus-Eik. But many drivers generally exit well before, at exit Jezus-Eik, which generates large queues around the exit.