It is being examined how the traffic situation around Meulestedebrug can be adjusted, in the hope that the daily traffic jams will decrease somewhat. 

The area around the Ghent Meulestede Bridge has been groaning for months under traffic jams, dangerous situations and traffic misery. A brand new bridge is being built next to the worn-out Meulestedebrug, but those works are creating complete chaos. Traffic to the Ghent Wiedauwkaai in particular suffers from the bottleneck that has arisen at the Meulestede Bridge. 

The delays, the long wait for the green light and the misery have become so bad that public transport company De Lijn decided last month to simply stop running the buses along the bridge. De Lijn intervened because the buses lose too much time in the traffic jams around Wondelgem and Meulestedebrug. De Lijn buses lost so much time in the simultaneous works on Evergemsesteenweg and Meulestedebrug that even the drivers' unions threatened to strike if no action was taken. The result is a lot of frustration among the students and other commuters. 

“Hopefully they are so good that they have a positive influence on De Lijn routes and that it will reintroduce its original travel routes. Now it is mainly the subscribed students and employees from Evergem and Zelzate who are the victims of the changed travel routes."

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square green

At the insistence of cycling associations, the square-green scheme has been introduced at the bridge. The principle of square green is designed in such a way that cars and trucks only get a green light after pedestrians and cyclists have had it, in all directions. This avoids them having to cross each other, which is dangerous. Everyone can imagine that only square green is activated in this way during rush hour. The traffic lights on also adjusted on the square green.

The 'square green' means that all cyclists and pedestrians from the different directions get the green light to cross at the same time, while cars and trucks have to wait a little longer. The purpose of this traffic rule is to avoid contact between vulnerable road users and cars and trucks, and thus prevent blind spot accidents.

scheepvaart

Shipping on the canal does not really contribute to the problems either. For example, del Meulestedebrug can be closed in the middle of rush hour to allow ships to pass. Adjustments in the timetable should ensure that from now on on working days the bridge will remain closed to ships from 7 a.m. to 8.30 a.m. and from 17 p.m. to 18 p.m. This should prevent the bridge from having to be opened in the middle of the rush hour and traffic coming to a standstill.

new bridge

At steel constructor Victor Buyck in Wondelgem, people work hard every day and weld a lot to put the whole puzzle together. Because the new bridge consists of 9000 pieces of steel that have to come together and will become a twin bridge. These are two separately movable parts. The colossus of ultimately 60 meters long weighs 2300 tons. But there is still a lot to do, we will not be able to drive over the first half of the bridge until early 2024. There is good news for the people of Ghent, because the new bridge may also get the familiar olive green color.

The new bridge may also get the familiar olive green color.
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