2023-10-25 15:50:00
The traffic changes concern rue Simone Veil and rue de Velaine as well as avenue des Acacias.
The N4 is a regional road but the work will have repercussions and therefore adaptations in certain municipal roads adjacent to the N4. According to the City, this involves on the one hand improving the fluidity of the N4 and on the other hand, reorganizing transit flows and calming neighborhoods thanks to more one-way traffic.
Rue Simone Veil
A traffic light has been installed at the intersection of rue Simone Veil and the N4 (between Camber and Wine & More). It is supposed to make it easier to pass through the street. From now on, vehicles leaving rue Simone Veil can head towards both Marche and Namur. The section located between Nelson Mandela and Des Myosotis streets remains a two-way zone 30.
Vehicle traffic (except bicycles) is now prohibited on rue Simone Veil, between Porte de Saint-Gérard and rue Nelson Mandela, towards rue des Myosotis.
Rue de Velaine
Vehicles wishing to join the N4 from rue de Velaine must now take rue Simone Veil given the new “no entry” sign in rue de Velaine towards the N4.
Avenue des Acacias
Vehicles going in the Namur-Marche direction can no longer turn left onto Avenue des Acacias. To reach it, you will have to take other roads (rue du Grand Tige, de la Pavée, drève du parc d’Erpent) towards rue des Aubépines.
Patience and flexibility
The City says it is aware that this involves new habits. She thanks citizens for their patience and flexibility. It will be necessary, especially when school starts once more on November 6.
Started in March, the redevelopment of the N4 is nearing completion. The objectives of the Walloon Region and the TECs were to redistribute mobility spaces between users (hence in particular a right lane reserved only for buses in both directions) and to anticipate the operation of the future P + R of Erpent (relief car park) and the high bus frequencies which will accompany it.
This transformation of mobility aims to reduce congestion during peak hours by limiting the ability to turn left or right at each intersection in order to favor mobility on the main axis.
Mayor Maxime Prévot had pleaded with Minister Philippe Henry for this work to only be carried out when the P + R would be operational (in 2026!) so that citizens would not suffer the disadvantages of limiting traffic lanes without having the advantages of having buses every quarter of an hour.
But the Region refused to postpone the work. Otherwise, access to both lanes for motorists is only permitted from the Quevrain garage to Night & Day.
This Wednesday, Maxime Prévot implored the minister to adjust the situation via a video on social networks. “Without reaction to my letter, I am publicly exposing the problem here”he indicated. “Please Philippe, open your eyes to the extremely problematic situation we are experiencing in terms of mobility on the N4!”thus begins his message.
The N4 no longer has two lanes available for motorists since there is now one reserved for buses. ©EdA-Vincent Lorent
“It makes no sense”
Marc Close, from the Erpent plateau neighborhood committee, believes that “it has become nonsense”.
Given that motorists can no longer reach the N4 via rue de Velaine and must take rue Simone Veil, the latter risks being very congested at the time of leaving Erpent college. “The light stays green for regarding 10 seconds, which allows two cars to pass. When there are 50 vehicles, the line will be endless”he deplores, especially since Thomas & Piron had sold a dream to its inhabitants by promising that it would have gentle mobility.
The City had also wanted a “meeting zone” in rue Simone Veil (with a speed limit of 20 km/h and priority for pedestrians with benches provided for this purpose) but given the additional traffic that will be generated, this possibility becomes insane, according to Marc Close.
For him, these works are total absurdity. “The N4 had to remain two lanes, rue de Velaine should remain two-way and rue Simone Veil should truly be for gentle mobility. If all this remains as it is, the people whose aggressiveness has been contained until then will explode and risk doing anything!” He adds that the creation of the P + R in Erpent is nonsense, knowing that the one in Bouge is only 25% used. “We are creating a system that turns out to be useless and expensive.”
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