Oosterweel Link

The Oosterweel Link is a construction project first proposed in 1996, intended to complete the R1 Antwerp Ring Road in Antwerp, Belgium. The firm Antwerp Mobility Management Company (name changed to Lantis in 2019), is the Flemish Government controlled organisation assigned responsibility for the project. The Oosterweel link will connect the Expressweg (E34) near Blokkersdijk via a toll tunnel (the Oosterweeltunnel) underneath the Scheldt, leading to a dual-layered tunnel under the Albert Canal and connecting with the Antwerp Ring Road at Merksem and Deurne.

The cost of "the project of the century", as this large infrastructure project is often called in Belgium, is estimated at 10 billion euros. In an independent cost-benefit analysis conducted by Transport & Mobility Leuven in 2010, it was found that for the Oosterweel connection the estimated infrastructure costs were approximately five times higher than the societal benefits, such as travel time gains, reduced traffic congestion, lower environmental damage, and fewer accidents. The study also found that road pricing has a significant positive effect on congestion levels and travel times. In an earlier study by KU Leuven (2005), in which alternative investment and tolling regimes for a Scheldt crossing were modelled, the net welfare gain of tolling the Kennedytunnel was estimated at €466,804 per day.