The Brussels Region will today approve an urban redevelopment plan which is expected to broadly transform the urban periphery to the south-east of the city, and to significantly reduce vehicle traffic inside the capital.
Brussels regional authorities are expected to approve the PAD (Plan d’Amenagement Directeur) plan during the course of Thursday morning.
By approving the plan, authorities will give the green light to the demolition of the Herrmann-Debroux flyover, a major peripheral route providing access into the capital to the south-east of Ixelles.
Once the layover has been demolished, the redevelopment project sets out a plan to replace it with an urban boulevard.
The goal of the plan — put forward by the outgoing regional government headed by Parti Socialist’s Rudi Vervoort— is to improve the quality of life and air in the areas where vehicle traffic headed into the capital is the heaviest, as well as to indirectly reduce the overall number of cars inside the city.
The plan also includes the prolongment of tram line 8, so that it connects the city’s busy Avenue Louise to residents of the Auderghem municipality, in the outskirts of the capital. Line 8 currently stops at Woluwe-Saint-Pierre.
"It's another way of imagining the city," Auderghem mayor Didier Gosuin told Le Soir.The French-language daily also cites Rudi Vervoort as saying the plan would put an end to the "dumping" of vehicles into Brussels.
A layover parking lot will be built in the future Auderghem tram stop, as an incentive for drivers coming into the capital to finish their journey in public transportation.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
