2023-06-13 15:02:00
After having avoided the disaster, the SPW continues to look into the fate of tray number 1 of the Inclined Plan of Ronquières. While a third crane was able to be transported to the site to remove the damaged door on Wednesday, the Sonégien deputy, François Desquesnes, is worried about the dramatic consequences that this incident could have had. He called on Minister Henry on Monday evening to ask him for an independent investigation into the accident.
As a reminder, on June 3, the collapse of a door of the only ferry still in operation on the Ronquières inclined plane caused a halt to river navigation on the Brussels-Charleroi canal. The site is completely shut down for several days, the operation to clear the damaged door requires the deployment of a special crane. As for the second ferry, it has been shut down for several years following renovation work.
This Monday in the Parliament of Wallonia, the Walloon deputy and leader of the Les Engagés group, François Desquesnes, questioned the Minister of Mobility, Philippe Henry (Ecolo), in order to find out the causes and origins of this accident, but also the consequences. and the work organized to maintain this important link between Brussels and the Center Region.
The Minister of Public Works declared in committee that the last report of this work dated from June 2020 and that a new inspection was planned for this month of July. The work of the Inclined Plan of Ronquières will be spread over several years, alternating between tray 1 and tray 2. Significant human and budgetary resources must be deployed but the exact cost is not yet known. For now, detour routes are possible via Tournai and Namur. Tray 2 should be back in service in 4 to 5 weeks and will ensure navigation until 2026.
The responsiveness of the SPW delights the Sonégien deputy, as does the reactivation of bac 2 in mid-July. Despite everything, he is sounding the alarm bell reminding us that “we came within a whisker of a real disaster! The barge could have been cut in two, people could have been crushed by the door… The number 1 ferry on the Inclined Plan has become a veritable guillotine. It is particularly striking that the cables which suspend the doors are subject to less strict control than the cables of the elevators. I therefore demand that an independent investigation be carried out by the Minister to understand how such an accident could have occurred. The safety of users of waterways must be ensured on each engineering structure, it is up to the Minister to act without delay”, concludes François Desquesnes.
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