Useless infrastructure works

The ring road R8 around the Belgian town of Kortrijk has been awaiting completion for decades. Construction of this ring road around the city began more than 50 years ago, in 1973. 

A severe storm lashed Belgium on Monday, 29 November 1897. Over a length of hundreds of metres, the sea dyke was washed away in the sea town Middelkerke. A drinking water reservoir did not remain unscathed either.

In the 1960s, the inhabitants of the Spanish town of Jánovas were forced to leave their houses in order to build a reservoir and dam which were never actually built.

A seven-hundred-meter long embankment, a splash of asphalt here and there, and two useless viaducts: cars will not immediately drive on the four-lane road of the N60 in Frasnes-lez-Anvaing.

Excavation works of the Ypres-Comines canal started in 1864. The canal would realize a connection between the Yser River and the Leie River. However, landslides at the ridge in Hollebeke soon threw a spanner in the works.

Trucks and cars rush over the Estaimpuis bridge towards Kortrijk or Tournai. But under the bridge, you will only find a traffic-free meadow.

Fewer traffic jams and fewer trucks through the centre. There was no shortage of noble intentions when the mayor of a Walloon municipality unveiled plans at the beginning of this century to construct a new, three-kilometre-long bypass between the motorway entrance and exit complex and the industrial park.

In 2001, European leaders of state and government gathered in the royal castle of Laeken. With their meeting, King Leopold II's hundred-year-old dream became a reality: to turn Laeken into a Palace of Nations, home to international conferences.

Half a century ago, the Belgian Ministry of Public Works rolled up its sleeves to build an industrial road between a factory and a nearby freight station in Hainaut.