Very busy traffic from coast to inland due to returning holidaymakers

For a journey from Ostend to Brussels, for example, motorists around 4.30 pm have to count on a travel time of one hour and 45 minutes, half an hour more than without traffic jams. Due to the less favorable weather, the return of holidaymakers to the coast after an extended weekend on Sunday started earlier than usual.

“The less good weather means that many people on the coast have already left home faster than usual,” says Peter Bruyninckx, spokesperson for the Flemish Traffic Center. “There are accordion traffic jams on many parts of the E40 towards Brussels on Sunday afternoon. It is especially busy between Aalter and Ghent.”

But it is also very busy on the highways around Antwerp on Sunday afternoon. For example, on the E17 coming from Ghent, there is a traffic jam in front of the Kennedytunnel for half an hour and it is also very busy on the Antwerp outer ring.

Due to large crowds, the Flemish Traffic Center was also forced to open the rush-hour lanes on the E19 to the Netherlands and the E313 to Germany in order to provide more capacity. “This is an atypical situation for a Sunday,” says Bruyninckx. On the E313 there is a lot of German traffic, on the E19 towards the Netherlands there are many cars with Dutch number plates.