Antwerp Oosterweel costs soar to €10,1 billion

The cost of the Oosterweel works, the mobility and livability project around Antwerp that will, among other things, close the car traffic connection along the north side of the ring road, has risen to 10.1 billion euros.

The new bill is more than 3 billion euros higher than estimated two years ago, of which 1.8 billion euros is for the Flemish government. Construction manager Lantis estimated this, figures which the business newspaper De Tijd was able to access.

PFAS-contaminated soil

The latest estimate from 2022 assumed a total cost of 6.8 billion euros for the works to close the Antwerp ring road for freeway and bicycle traffic, among other things, by constructing a new Scheldt tunnel.

In addition to the inflation in construction costs (770 million), dealing with PFAS contamination on the site from chemical company 3M, among other sources, costs a lot of money.

For example, Lantis must purify groundwater contaminated with barely biodegradable and toxic substances (810 million) and incur additional costs to dispose of clean soil (410 million) because of the contamination.

Additional costs for handling asbestos (140 million), additional environmental and technical requirements in permit procedures (440 million), and half a billion euros for contractual risk allocation with contractors, among other things, are added to that.

Collect tolls

In 2018, Lantis agreed with the Flemish government that it would bear part of the cost with its own revenues. The builder already gets these from tolls in the Liefkenshoek tunnel and later in the new tunnels.

The extra cost to the Flemish government threatens to drive up the budget deficit, although Europe allows Flanders to leave the Oosterweel investments out of the balance.

‘A welfare project for Flanders’

In its press release, which does not mention the figures quoted by De Tijd, Lantis stresses that to make the pill less bitter, the project’s benefits have now “risen to 20 billion euros”.

In addition to the visible mobility benefits, the Oosterweel project will “ensure safer and smoother mobility on and around the Antwerp ring road; the canopies will provide additional green space in Antwerp and reduce noise pollution for citizens living near the ring road”. Air quality around the ring road will also improve significantly, thanks to the undergrounding of traffic.

“The Oosterweel project has long since ceased to be a mobility project; it is a welfare project for Flanders,” Lantis writes. “The more than positive final balance sheet obviously does not justify a further increase in the cost price because we understand that citizens are questioning this. With our contractors and the government, we are doing everything possible to control the cost price and deliver the project as quickly as possible for the citizens.”

Oosterweel, the largest construction site in Flanders, is on track to be fully completed by 2033.