With a rich history and culture, a wide variety of sights and attractions, and fantastic shopping and dining options, the Belgian port city of Antwerp has emerged as one of the top European destinations for British tourists to visit. Home to impressive 16th century houses, a jaw-dropping Gothic Cathedral and so much jewellery it earned the nickname as the “diamond capital of the world”, it’s no surprise that Antwerp welcomed 15.8 million day trippers in 2024.

However, all this footfall has led to one big problem: the city has transformed into a giant car park. So, for the last few decades, the city has been building an impressive megaproject that hopes to end the chaos. The Oosterweel Link project was first proposed in 1996, intended to complete the R1 Antwerp Ring Road.

The Flemish Government hopes the Link will improve access to Antwerp and its port to reduce congestion on the Ring Road and “rat running” commuter traffic in the larger urban area. In 2022, drivers spent an incredible 61 hours in traffic on average, thanks to the unfinished ring road.

Antwerp stands as one of the world’s major seaports, with the Netherlands to the North, Germany to the East, Brussels to the west and the North Sea to the west. On top of this, the Ring Road also forms a crucial element of the Trans-European Transport Network – connecting Parisa and Amsterdam along the North Sea-Mediterranean Corridor.

However, major geographical challenges in Antwerp have made executing the project much more complex than initially anticipated. The road must bypass not one, but two waterways: the Scheldt River and the Albert Canal.

The new Scheldt Tunnel is where the two main sections of the project on the banks of the river will meet. Before construction, a vast pit extending some 25 metres below the surface was required.

“From the moment we had this construction pit ready we could start building the actual tunnel. And that is what we are building at this moment,” explained Jan Bauwens, project director for construction consortium TM COTU, to The B1M.

Eight huge segments, each weighing about 60,000 tonnes, will be slotted together under the water to create the 1,800-metre tunnel. These segments are currently being built 62 miles outside of Antwerp and will be brought via tug boat to their final resting place. They will then be lowered into the trench on the seabed, with the water pumped out. As the tunnel forms part of a ring road, some of the segments are being built with a curve.

The Oosterweel Junction will be constructed sunk into the landscape to make it less visible from a distance and will enable traffic to either head to the port or into another set of tunnels.

The Canal Tunnels are being built under the Albert Canal, with four 1.5-mile tubes allowing drivers to head in one of two directions once they join up with the existing ring road.

The project is expected to cost around seven billion euros (£5.9 billion). Much of this is being borrowed from the Flemish Government, but the European Investment Bank has also put in half a billion euros. This will be paid back using tolls.

The project is expected to be completed by 2030 and forms part of Route Plan 2030, which aims to reduce the number of car journeys around the city from 70% to 50%.

The Oosterweel Link is one element, and the most expensive, of a general Antwerp Masterplan for transport. This comprises 16 impressive infrastructure projects for roads, waterways, inland shipping, public transport, docks and solutions for pedestrians and cyclists.