Belgium: Tournai reviews downtown traffic

In Belgium, the city of Tournai is preparing for a 7-month construction site with strategic importance for downtown traffic. Objective: to refurbish an entire crossroads with bicycle paths and red lights.

This project, estimated at € 4 million and financed by the Sofico (Walloon Society for the Supplementary Financing of Infrastructure), the contracting owner of the project, is part of a new municipal mobility plan to be implemented to 2018, says the daily Le Soir. In the immediate future, the municipality of Tournai is tackling the reconstruction of the intersection between the Chaussée de Bruxelles (N7) and the Boulevard de Marvis. The work, divided into two phases, will begin in April 2017 and will last 7 months.

The first phase will last 4 months and will consist of rehabilitating the Boulevard Walter de Marvis (R52) from the Dorcas roundabout to Boulevard des Combattants, part of Boulevard des Combattants (R52) between the crossroads with the (N7) and Rue d’Amour, and part of the Chaussée de Bruxelles (N7) from the crossroads with the R52 until after the crossroads with Rue de la Paix and Rue des Bastions, enumerates The evening.

In a second phase of a duration of 3 months, intersections with traffic lights will also be installed at the Porte of Marvis and the intersection formed by the street of Amour and the allée of Grosseillers, with the boulevard of Combattants. A two-way bike path will complete the development along the Boulevard de Marvis, thus linking the cycle paths located avenues Bozière and Decraene as well as the bike paths on the Chaussée de Bruxelles and the facilities of the quays.

This work is essential to distill the dense traffic of this crossroads, which is one of the main entrances to the city with 28,000 cars per day coming from the Chaussée de Bruxelles and 25,000 on the Boulevard de Marvis side.