The tunnels run under the Albert Canal and connect the future Oosterweel junction with the Oosterweel Ring.
The Channel Tunnels consist of four tubes, stacked two high. They start in the America Dock and will divide at Noorderlaan where the lower tubes will connect to the Antwerp Ring towards the Netherlands, and the upper tubes will carry traffic to and from the Sportpaleis and the E313.
The first sections of the Channel Tunnels will be completed by the end of 2028.
Unlike the project’s Scheldt Tunnel, for which the tunnel elements are built in a construction dock in Zeebrugge, the elements for the Channel Tunnels are made on site.
TM Roco, comprising Besix, Stadsbader Contractors, Deme Group and Jan De Nul, will begin vibrating steel sheet piles into the bottom of the Albert Canal at the end of the month. The consortium chose this method for speed and because it will require less piling.
Building the sheet pile wall along the entire route from the Samgadok to the Asiadok will take approximately one year. From the end of 2024, TM Roco will start pumping out the water between the sheet pile walls and filling the construction pit with sand to create a dry site to build the Channel Tunnels.
TM Roco project director Jeroen Philtjens said building the stacked Channel Tunnels under Antwerp was “an immense technical challenge”.
During tunnel construction, the heavily used Albert Canal will be narrowed so Oosterweelbouwheer Lantis, Port of Antwerp-Bruges and De Vlaamse Waterweg have developed a package of measures to ensure that shipping traffic can continue to use the waterway.
The Vessel Traffic Services (VTS), already active in other areas of the port, has been extended to the Oosterweel works area. The system monitors shipping traffic and provides ships with information and advice about risks, weather conditions and navigation. In addition to the expansion of the VTS and the construction of a digital passage planner, mobile radar units have also been developed, and cameras and signalling boards installed.
In the America Dock, a landing berm has been built to protect both the shipyard and eventually the Channel Tunnels from a possible ship collision.
