Roadworks could mean delays for commuters from Monday evening
Roadworks on the westbound carriageway of the E40 motorway at Groot-Bijgaarden in Flemish Brabant could make many thousands of commuters’ drive to and from work all the more arduous. The work to extend the slip road to the motorway service station and parking facilities at Groot-Bijgaarden got under way on Monday morning. It is necessary for road safety reasons as the slip road has been the scene of numerous accidents in the past.
As Groot-Bijgaarden services are little more than a kilometre from the E40’s intersection with the Brussels Orbital Motorway the work is likely to cause delays there as well as on the first section of the E40 heading out of Brussels. Monday evening’s rush hour will be the first test of the effect the roadworks will have on commuters between Brussels and the northwest of the country.
Lanes will be narrowed and a 50 km/h speed limit will be in force for the duration of the roadworks. This means that those those joining the E40 motorway from its start at the end of the Keizer Karellaan in Sint-Agatha-Berchem (Brussels) and from the Brussels Orbital Motorway can expect delays. Those joining the E40 from the Brussels Orbital will be channelled onto two narrowed lanes, while one narrowed lane will be available for those coming straight onto the E40 from Brussels. The work will take two months.
The start of the roadworks coincides with an exceptionally warm day. On Monday morning many thousands of people headed for the coast in their cars. This led to delays of around three quarters of an hour on the E40 near Ghent in East Flanders. There were delays too on the E313, near Antwerp and on the E17 for those heading for Antwerp’s Kennedy Tunnel. There were also delays of around 30 minutes on the Brussels Orbital.