[B] Belgian Motorways • Autoroutes de Belgique • Belgische Autosnelwegen

[ChrisZwolle]

Exit 19 ceased to exist, and this is how the Belgians sign it. You don't see this often.

[Verso]

^ Interesting.

Originally Posted by Chris1491

R0 Ring Brussel - Bruxelles - Brussels - Brüssel
The R0 is a 76km ringroad around the Capital of Europe and Belgium. The road is mostly 2x3 lanes or more, but has a non-motorway section southeast of Brussels.

119 photos, Picasa Webalbum

Wow, I had no idea there was a motorway/expressway south-east of Brussels, and that it was part of the R0, as well as south-west of Brussels; I mean, it's a strange circle, so I never thought of it. And that 4-lane road SE of Brussels is very motorway-like (not counting the speed limit). Chris, it would be good if you added that you started by the interchange between R0 and E40, I was confused for a while. And as I was driving there myself, by all those local names (Bergen, Namen, Anvers, Luik...) I felt lost. Btw, how come that Charleroi doesn't have any expression in Dutch?

[ChrisZwolle]

Charleroi is something like Karelskoning or Carls King in English. No one uses that name.

And you mean the N25 Louvain-la-Neuve -> Nivelles, that's virtually a motorway with 120km/h limit. Made pics there too.

[ChrisZwolle]

N25 Louvain-la-Neuve (E411) - Nivelles (E19)

This is a fast connection south of Brussels, in fact, it's just a motorway, but with a N-number. The ringroad of Nivelles is mostly 2x2 lanes with roundabouts.

30 pics, Picasa Webalbum

[Verso]

Originally Posted by Verso

And that 4-lane road SE of Brussels is very motorway-like (not counting the speed limit).

Originally Posted by Chris1491

And you mean the N25 Louvain-la-Neuve -> Nivelles, that's virtually a motorway with 120km/h limit. Made pics there too.

No no no, actually I was still talking about the R0.

[ChrisZwolle]

Okay That part is very quiet anyway, the busiest parts are on the northern side of the R0.

[ChrisZwolle]

A54 - R9 Charleroi
Charleroi is one of Belgiums biggest cities, as well the poorest, it's even one of the poorest cities in Western Europe. However, it's a city of lost glory. It used to be a thriving industrial center, however, all of that is gone by now, and it's just a city, black of all the coal mining in the area.
The R9 is a oneway freeway around the city center (Ville-Basse / Downtown). The A54 is the most important access freeway from Brussels and E42.

Youtube 8:47 min

[picassoborseli]

I don't like Belgium's traffic signs.

Dutch signs are much better and cleaner.

[Nephasto]

Thanks alot for all you contributions and photo's Chris.

You're certainly the biggest contributor to all the roads thread, but I'il have to make an important remark:

Couldn't you post your photo's (at least some.... like 20 or so in each post) instead of redirecting to a website (btw, that picassa website was just horrible to see the photo's... it doesn't allow me to open the picture in a new window... ) or putting them in som 100 Mb zip file.

You must be aware that by doing that only few people actually care do download it, unzip it and what all the photo's... If you pasted them in the threads (at least some), the thread would get infinitely more interested, and many more people would actually see the photo's.
I speak for myself, which am a road freak, but I don't have the time or patience to be downloading and unziping all those files... If I was interested in one particular motorway that would bge great, but for someone who just comes here to see photo's of Belgium motorways in general it's very discouraging.

[Verso]

What's wrong with Picasa? I don't get it.


I do have a little complaint though (you're doing a great job otherwise, a spadework ): why do you overreact in taking photos of traffic signs (at least these Belgian photos)? I MYSELF am interested in them, I wanna know what they look like, destinations, which language they use for them etc. etc., but everything can be done by grasping the actual roads, as well as signs. I was so eager to see what the SE part of the R0 looked like, but I had to scroll quite some photos to find out, I mean poor me. Do you overuse zoom perhaps? Anyway, one of my photos as an example (sorry for OT), and this is an extreme case, b/c the signs are actually above the road, right of the motorway, but I still grasped everything:

Originally Posted by Verso

"Fucking awesome shiny crash barriers!!!"

[radi6404]

Yes, they are the one of the right at least.

[Alex Von Königsberg]

del

[ChrisZwolle]

@ Verso; Belgian signage is so extremely unorganized, they are at all sides of the road, and you have to change your camera position all the time. If you look at the German pics, you'll notice a difference. And another disadvantage is, that a huge amount of signs is behind trees and stuff, so i have to take the photo last-minute, so there can't be all the road itself on the photo.

Imagine your photo with trees and plants in front of it. You can imagine, you have to take the pic much later, so you can't get the road on it.

[ChrisZwolle]

A truck has been crashed into a bridge over interchange Strombeek-Bever in the R0 Brussels ring. The driver has died, and the bridge is in state of collapsing. If they remove the truck, the bridge will collapse.
The bridge will have to be demolished.



Helicopter views

[Verso]

^ Unbelievable! Bad for the Brussels traffic.


About photos: you're right, I didn't think of all the greenery along Belgian motorways. Your German pix are ok!

[hix]

It's time they do something about the signs in Belgium. They really suck! And those plants growing in front of signs is really bad for security. And on top of this, it gives a bad impression of the country to foreigners.

[ChrisZwolle]

E40 Liège - Leuven - Brussel
The E40 is an important transport route, 2x3 lanes all the way, and even 4 lanes from Leuven to Brussels. The pavement is very old, noisy but not too bumpy. I took this ride on a sunday, so it's not too busy.

84 photo's, Picasa Webalbum

[ChrisZwolle]

Overview with the pics to come;

Belgium:
A54 Nivelles - Charleroi
E19 Brussel - French border
E42 Liège - La Louvière
E42 La Louvière - Liège
E411 Namur - Wavre
E429 Tournai - Halle
R3 ring Charleroi
----------------------------
France:
A2 Belgium - Valenciennes
A23 Valenciennes - Lille
A27 Lille - Belgium
----------------------------
Luxembourg
A1 Luxembourg - Trier (Germany)
A4 Esch-sur-Alzette - Luxembourg
A13 Pédange - Schengen (Germany)
A13 Schengen - Esch-sur-Alzette
-----------------------------
Germany:
A1-A60 Trier - St.Vith (Belgium)

And some videos around Liège

[Thermo]

Chris, any plans of doing the new highways E25 (Namur-Arlon) and E411 (Liège-Arlon)? Looks like you make lots of videos in Belgium but you 'forget' the best (newest) highways? Why is that?

[ChrisZwolle]

I didn't photograph that section, because it has been photographed by others many times. However i did make some pics last year from Liège to Bastogne. Others have photographed E25 and E411 entirely.

However i am not planning to return there soon, because Liège is like 280km from where i live.