Over de Ring
From 2016 to 2018, intendant Alexander D’Hooghe and his team initiated and supervised the 'Over De Ring' (Above the Ring) urban redesign process for the area around the Antwerp ring road.
After that, a process was started with various organisations and citizens to arrive at concrete and feasible liveability projects for the Antwerp ring road. These projects include partially covering the ring road and other spatial and infrastructural measures that aim to improve the quality of life in the ring zone. During this process, work was carried out in six sub-zones where a dedicated urban design team set to work. VITO has supported the team of the intendant and all design teams on air quality.
In the various phases of the design process, qualitative and quantitative feedback have been given to indicate the impact of the liveability projects in the ring zone on local air quality.
This was done on the basis of the available expertise and detailed air quality modelling, using ATMO-Street tailored to future outlooks for 2020 and 2030. The close involvement in the design processes and the short lines of communication with the various teams formed a good approach to allow VITO’s knowledge and experience with air quality to be reflected in the liveability projects.
Year: 2016 - 2018
Client: Flemish Department of Mobility and Public Works (MOW)
Follow-up projects
The parks, the bridge and the Oosterweel connection, designed as part of "Over de Ring", will be further drawn out and built in the coming years. The entire future project was aptly named “De Grote Verbinding" or The Great Connection. The ATMOSYS team contributed with air quality calculations with ATMO-Street for several clients that studied these urban design plans. Recently, the following projects were finished:
- Knoop Oost: Study about covering of the Antwerp southern ring road and the design of the traffic junction between E313 and E19. It looked in detail at the effect of tunnel measures such as covering, sound walls and shaders on the air pollutant dispersion. This study was performed for MOW in collaboration with Team Intendant in 2023 - 2024.
- Ringpark Lobroekdok: Mapping of pollutant concentrations near the Lobroekdok Ring Park with the latest projections for the evolution of background concentrations and the fleet to 2030. Besides, the impact of mitigation measures at the Lobroekdok, in particular the motorway embankment and screens around this embankment, was taken into account. Project done for AG Vespa in 2024.
- Ringpark Groene Vesten: Air quality modelling for the Groene Vesten Ring Park project, aimed at investigating the impact of screens along the southern Ring Road between Craeybeckx Tunnel and Zurenborg Bridge. Project done for AG Vespa in 2024.
- Knoop Zuid: Air quality modelling for the environmental impact assessment procedure for the reconstruction of Knoop Zuid, an important connection between two road axes around and to the city of Antwerp, making use of the latest projections for the evolution of background concentrations and the fleet to 2030. Flemish Project done for the Roads and Traffic Agency (Agentschap Wegen en Verkeer) in 2025.