EU supports inland waterway transport in Belgium

Creation date: 28 January 2013

The European Union will co-finance with almost €5 million from the TEN-T Programme three projects aimed at improving the navigability of certain sections on the fluvial network in Belgium forming part of the "Inland Waterway Seine-Scheldt" (TEN-T Priority Project 30).

The three projects were all selected for funding under the 2011 TEN-T Annual Call.

The first project, which is supported by a grant worth €818,000, involves rebuilding the bridges of Harchies and Luttre in the Belgian region of Wallonia and raising an existing footbridge to obtain a minimal clearance of 7 metres over the water. This will allow the passage of vessels with three layers of shipping containers from the French border up to the Meuse river.

The second project, supported by a grant worth over €2.2 million, consists of developing the necessary studies to prepare the infrastructure works in the Seine–Scheldt network in the Belgian region of Flanders. The studies will provide solutions to tackle the remaining bottlenecks, assess how to cope with the expected increased traffic and draw up alternative shipping paths in order to increase the reliability of the network.

The final project, co-financed to the tune of €1.7 million, involves the modernisation of the Wintam to Willebroek section of the Brussels-Scheldt canal. The latter is part of the TEN-T network and is located at the crossroads of various important road and rail connections. The project will support upgrading the section to obtain a minimum water depth of 9.5 metres and a minimum width of 55 metres, in order to make it accessible to vessels displacing up to 10,000 tonnes and stimulate inland waterway transport in the region.

The projects are all set to be completed by the end of 2014.

For more information, please consult the project's page! The second project and the third one.

Press Release in French -  .doc (37 KB)

Press Release in Dutch -  .doc (40.5 KB)

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