Lantis: ‘New delay for Oosterweel project: completion in 2033’

On Wednesday, Lantis reported that the Oosterweel project in Antwerp will not be completed until the end of 2033, three years later than expected. According to the builder, one of the main reasons for the delay is the PFAS pollution. Not only the works in Linkeroever and Zwijndrecht were confronted with this, similar pollution was also found on the right bank. 

In recent years, Lantis has remediated or removed almost 1 million cubic meters of PFAS soil and dredging sludge and purified the groundwater at the Oosterweel works, causing the Oosterweel’s costs to explode.

Contaminated soil

Lantis has already allocated millions of euros to remediate the contaminated soil. The Court of Audit estimated last year that the estimated cost of the infrastructure project has increased from 3.6 billion to 6.7 billion euros.

Another delaying factor is the extended permit processing time. “The complexity has only increased in recent years,” Lantis explains. Finally, additional coverings were added to the plans during the works’ execution.

On schedule

However, Lantis emphasizes that the Scheldt tunnel between the left and right banks and the Oosterweel junction in the north of the city are still on schedule for commissioning in 2030. The delay is mainly situated in the area with the Merksem viaduct yet to be demolished, where the Antwerp ring road will be made deeper.

“The Scheldt tunnel and the Oosterweel junction will be opened to motorists and cyclists from the end of 2030, creating a new connection between the left and right banks,” Lantis explains. “The rest of the infrastructure will follow in the coming years.”

Overly optimistic planning

It is not the first time that the end date of the gigantic project has been postponed. In 2019, it was already said that the works would not be completed in 2025 but in 2030 due to overly optimistic planning.

The new postponement in the Oosterweel dossier, which has been running since 2002, is mainly a setback for commuters because working longer means more extended traffic jams.

The Antwerp beltway has been saturated for years, with up to 140,500 vehicles daily, including 26,000 trucks, double the freight traffic on the Brussels Ring.