Infrastructure & Spatial Planning

'The challenge in this country is that we need to turn around decades of poor planning and automobileorientated planning.'

Nearly all the solutions proposed to this country’s mobility challenges involve infrastructure works: new roads, new railway lines, raised bridges and larger locks along the waterways, multimodal terminals, new container docks, and so on. We also have plenty of maintenance work to do given the chronic underinvestment since the 1980s. Indeed, a new era of investment does seem to have commenced. But the picture thus far is mixed: the works on the Antwerp ring (successful), the high-speed rail link north of Antwerp (took a while), the Leien in Antwerp (success), Diabolo works in context of the GEN/RER plan and improved Airport links (hiccups initially but got going now), the Liefkeshoek rail tunnel (nice contract), Oosterweel link (crisis). Why is it so challenging?

Firstly, infrastructure costs a great deal of money, money which the government does not have. The federal government is too deep in the red already and the regional governments are committed to being debt-free (to ensure Belgium meets its commitments to the Maastricht Treaty). This is why recourse was taken to public private partnerships (PPP). Secondly, it takes a great deal of time to plan and build infrastructure. The Oosterweel project is in its 10th year and not a stone has been laid. And during that time the context of the project can change. What looked like a good project ten years ago suddenly does not look so good anymore. Values have changed, new concerns have emerged, new technologies have become available, etc. Thirdly, the public tolerance of large infrastructure works is low—the NIMBY effect in other words; nobody wants a building site on their doorstep. But even the finished product is generally disliked. In the 60s people were impressed with great works simply because they were big (wow, look at those highways); today you need a work of art (e.g. Liège Guillemins designed by Santiago Calatrava) to impress.