Kennedytunnel

The Kennedytunnel is an important road, rail and bicycle tunnel under the Scheldt. The road tunnel forms a part of Highway R1 surrounding the city of Antwerp. Opened to road traffic on 31 May 1969, and to rail traffic on 1 February 1970, the tunnel was named after John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States. Plans for this tunnel dated from the fifties. Between 1945 and 1960 the volume of traffic going through the Waaslandtunnel had quintupled, so by the end of the fifties this tunnel had to accommodate more than 38.000 vehicles a day. Because of the resulting daily congestion on both sides of the river crossing, the construction of a second crossing was deemed a necessity. In 1958 the layout for the E3 was established, and an invitation to tender was issued for a bridge or a tunnel. In 1963, Minister Georges Bohy, following the advice of his technical experts, decided in favour of a tunnel.

Dromos