On 16 August, the works for the thorough renovation of the viaduct in Vilvoorde will begin. If you are coming from the direction of Ghent, you should expect long traffic jams.
The viaduct of Vilvoorde, the best-known bridge in our country, opened for traffic in 1978. Now, around 150,000 vehicles cross the bridge every day. And that causes more wear and tear than the engineers at the time could have predicted.
After 50 years of increasingly intensive use, the bridge is in need of a large scale renovation.
Major disruption expected
A gigantic project that will take eight years in total and will cause major disruption on the Ring road. The work will be undertaken in stages. For each stage, several lanes will be closed to traffic. This will then be the work site.
Stage 1: August 2023 – end 2025
On 16 August, the first stage will begin on the inner ring. Specifically, the traffic heading towards Zaventem will have to make use of three narrowed lanes with a maximum speed limit of 50km/h. From February 2024, only 1 narrowed lane will be available during some weekend nights.
You can find more information about the subsequent stages and the impact they will have here.
Choose alternate transport
That the works will cause traffic jams in the direction of Zaventem is clear. We would therefore strongly advise anyone coming from the direction of Ghent or from the region to the north of Brussels to leave the car at home and make use of public transport or the bicycle.
There are convenient train connections to Brussels Airport from Bruges, Ghent, Aalst and Denderleeuw. More info.
For those coming from the region to the north of Brussels, the Ringtrambus (route 820) offers a very good alternative as well.
Or perhaps the bus could be a good option for you. Check it out with the routeplanner of De Lijn.
