Passions run high over Belgian bridge plan

By Greg Roumeliotis

ANTWERP (Reuters) - The Lange Wapper is a mischievous shape-shifting giant who in Flemish folklore taunts the people of Antwerp. So it was perhaps not the most fortunate choice of name for a planned major bridge for the city.

The 2.5 billion euro ($3.75 billion) plan has support from many companies around Europe's second largest port: Antwerp's Chamber of Commerce says 95 percent of its members back it. It would attract private capital in partnership.

But despite being touted by proponents as an opportunity to create a landmark for Antwerp to rival the likes of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and Sydney's Harbour Bridge, the plan to span the old harbour sits on a political faultline.

Many Antwerpers complain that the political powerhouse of Flanders -- French-speaking Brussels -- is seeking to impose its will on the Flemish economic engine in the Dutch-speaking north.

Rejected by a referendum, the project 20 years on the drawing board is already generating recriminations and law suits: more may be in the pipeline as the row intensifies.

"Brussels has put their plan on the table and say 'it's this or nothing,'" says Christian Leysen, one of only a handful of executives in the port area to publicly oppose the 1.5 kilometer cable-stayed bridge, to be supported by 110-meter high pylons.

"You have to be strong enough to say, 'sorry, this will not do.'"

From his boardroom in the high-rise headquarters of Ahlers, his logistics and maritime services company, he can see clearly where the bridge would be built. It will not cross Antwerp's main river, the Scheldt, but will link to a tunnel beneath the river. Leysen's protest has been criticized by other executives.

"I do this out of my interest for city planning," he said. "There have been conceptual errors made by people who did not know anything about mobility and by construction firms pushing for what serves them best."

Gunther Dieltjens, who owns an upmarket restaurant serving mainly fish dishes in the converted 'pump house' in the old harbour where the dry dock was drained for ship maintenance, is already challenging the project in the courts.

"The distance of the first layer of the bridge from the ground is 20 meters and our building is 11 meters high, so you can imagine how close it would pass," he said.

CHILDREN SMOKING

A high-profile "no" campaign -- including an advert showing children smoking to portray the threat to health in bringing traffic so close to people's homes -- resulted in rejection by 59 percent of those voting in the October referendum.

But the vote is not binding.

The project's proponents, who include the Christian Democrats, the largest party in the Flemish government, argue the bridge is the only viable option in tackling deteriorating traffic congestion in the city. Antwerp contributes more than a fifth of Belgium's economic output.