Checkpoint Tervuren will be with us well into next year. Holding up the reopening of Duisburgsesteenweg are complex foundation works for new luxury Panquin appartments and thorny legal questions of whether or not Tervuren should chip in for road repair costs.
“The sewer pipes show clear signs of cracks and fissures and need to be replaced. The gas pipes need replacing,” says Werner Aerts, alderman for public works. And there are plans to replace water pipes, too.
So can’t works start now? “That’s quite a different story,” Flemish nationalist NV-A’s Werner told the town council. Delay appears rooted in squabbling about whether or not the developers and their insurers have to foot repair bills. Insurers argue it has not been “sufficiently” demonstrated that the road’s poor foundation was not there before the crack appeared. “Of course, we do not agree. It came about due to the crack,” says Werner.
Can’t repair works start now? “That’s quite a different story,” NV-A’s alderman for public works Werner Aerts says.
Tervuren is drawing up a list of costs incurred since the road was closed in June 2023. Town grandees are even paying a lawyer. And local business has been asked to add any losses they’ve suffered. It is unclear whether or not Tervuren will contact car drivers who suffered damage passing the narrow checkpoint.
Is there an actual precise date when the Duisburgsesteenweg will be repaired and reopened? “We will only know when the contractor is known. Then we will know what the timing will be for carrying out these works,” says Werner diplomatically.
“We’re gone for a long time, I fear. Certainly, it’s not 2024,” says opposition Tervuren Unie’s councillor Geoffroy de Visscher.
Works will only begin in September 2024 in the best of scenarios. And the deadlines are apparently set by ION, the firm managing the apartment construction site. “Then it’ll still be necessary to carry out the repair work itself. That could last several weeks, or even several months, especially since the contractor for the road repair work has not yet been appointed, and the insurance companies are reluctant to pay,” Geoffroy tells Tervuren+. The French-speaking councillor is adamant residents won’t, or shouldn’t, cough up.
Town hall points to subsurface compactness testing detecting cavities at depths of up to 5-7 meters. Next to the construction pit wall, insufficiently compact ground was even detected up to 13 meters. But construction works to restore the Duisburgsesteenweg’s load-bearing capacity can only be carried out from August 2024 at the earliest. That’s only after Panquin’s basement floor, next to the impacted zone, is finished.
Checkpoint Tervuren vs Bowling Alley
A positive for Checkpoint Tervuren is the additional opportunity, on top of Bowling Alley, for natives to show off their driving prowess. ‘Bowling Alley’ is the name they chose, not town grandees, for the hastily installed traffic bollards just after the Jazz Fountain.
Tervuren grandees insist the bollards are not intended to cause traffic jams. “That is why six meters have been provided between the posts and the curb on the other side, sufficient to allow two cars and even two buses to cross, albeit at an appropriate speed,” says town hall.
It is unclear whether Bowling Alley will become a permanent feature. Checkpoint Tervuren, though, should disappear over the course of 2025.
“Thanks to the bollards, cyclists and motorized traffic can use the roadway together without conflicting with each other,” town hall adds, eloquently.
