The A12 is an incomplete motorway in
Belgium. The road starts at the
Dutch border near
Zandvliet
Zandvliet () is a former Belgian town forming part of the Antwerp district of Berendrecht-Zandvliet-Lillo. The place dates back to 1135 when it was known as ''Santflit'', meaning "a navigable passage through sand".
In 1622 the Spaniard Ambrogio ...
and goes to
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, . There the A12 goes onto the Antwerp ring road R1. Then the road goes via
Wilrijk in the direction of
Brussels (the traffic coming from
Ghent takes the A112 via the Jan De Vos Tunnel). From here on, it has
frontage roads on both sides. Between Wilrijk and
Schelle, the A12 is an
expressway
Expressway may refer to:
* Controlled-access highway, the highest-grade type of highway with access ramps, lane markings, etc., for high-speed traffic.
* Limited-access road, a lower grade of highway or arterial road.
*Expressway, the fictional s ...
with major
at-grade intersection
An intersection or an at-grade junction is a junction where two or more roads converge, diverge, meet or cross at the same height, as opposed to an interchange, which uses bridges or tunnels to separate different roads. Major intersections a ...
s that contain also the frontage roads. There, from Schelle, it is again a motorway. Then, in
Boom
Boom may refer to:
Objects
* Boom (containment), a temporary floating barrier used to contain an oil spill
* Boom (navigational barrier), an obstacle used to control or block marine navigation
* Boom (sailing), a sailboat part
* Boom (windsurfi ...
, a tunnel leads the A12 under the
Rupel river, where the frontage roads take a bridge and then fuse with the motorway itself. Between
Breendonk
Breendonk is a village in the municipality of Puurs-Sint-Amands in the province of Antwerp, Belgium, with a population 3,000, halfway between Brussels and Antwerp.
History
Its name stems from the medieval ''Bredene Dunc'' which translates as "wi ...
and
Sint-Brixius-Rode, there are again at-grade intersections, and then it is again a motorway, until Brussels, where it ends onto the
Brussels Ring.
There are plans to gradually convert the road into a full motorway. Therefore, exits would be built replacing the two intersections in
Westrode/
Londerzeel and a bridge replacing the intersection near Breendonk. However, in 2010, the intersections are being modernised instead and a frontage road is partially being built in the direction of Brussels.
Between Zandvliet and Stabroek (north of Antwerp), the railway runs on the
central reservation
The median strip, central reservation, roadway median, or traffic median is the reserved area that separates opposing lanes of traffic on divided roadways such as divided highways, dual carriageways, freeways, and motorways. The term also a ...
.
Unusually for a motorway in Belgium, the A12 is not part of the
E-road network
The international E-road network is a numbering system for roads in Europe developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The network is numbered from E1 up and its roads ...
. However, for much of its length it runs a few kilometers to the west of and parallel with the
A1 which forms a part of the
European route E19.
Pictures
File:Lijn11 a12.jpg, Picture of the A12 and the railway line 11
File:AutorouteA12.jpg, The A12 in the direction of Willebroek
File:A12-Zandvliet.JPG, The A12 near Zandvliet, in the direction of Bergen-op-Zoom
External links
Complete track of the A12 on Autosnelwegen.net*
{{Motorways in Belgium
Motorways in Belgium