Belgian roads

BikerGraham

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camping and caravanning since a kid. New to motorhomes
Heading back for the ferry from Ijmuiden and staying st a lovely site just north of Breda. So a lie in tomorrow 🥳🥳

Anyway travelled through Belgian again today and to be honest they must be the worst and most dangerous roads I’ve ever been on. That is saying something given the lack of funding for those in the north east of England.

Pot holes on wthe main roads and motorways are an understatement, more like bloody craters meaning taking your life in your hands trying to avoid or have your wheels ripped off.
 
Some bits are fine but the stretch before you cross back into NL is interesting not sure how you make a road that rough :oops:

We came back same route last Thursday. Stopped off at Edam. Don't need the stress of a long drive on the last day.
 
Agree. They are amongst the worst. Presently in Italy and it seems like they are trying to compete with the Belgiums to be the worst.
 
Although Belgium had the first motorway that had permanent lighting, the motorway and lighting was, supposedly, paid for by income from their Congo interests.
When they lost control of these, their road system started to deteriate and, in my 1970/80's trucking days, the motorway from Zeebrugge to Brussels had two groves on the inner lane where all the loaded artics travelled. ('tram-lines')

In winter, these would fill up with rain and then freeze, causing the motorway to become like an ice rink.
I remember leaving Zeebrugge early one morning after disembarking off the 'Freighter' ferry and heading towards Brussels in a convoy of trucks and a few cars, when this car in front of me suddenly started spinning, 180% on the ice after hitting the 'tram-lines'.

I don't know who was more frightened, him or me because, there were we, nose to nose, me afraid to touch the foot brakes on my 32ton artic (thank God for the retarder) in case I started jack-knife, or him, who was rolling/sliding backward only feet from a fully loaded, Daf 2800. sliding along at 40-50mph. :eek: We all survived, although, it did cause some concern to the trucks behind!
 
Did you have the facilities to change your underwear in your trucks in those days ....? 💩💩💩

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Agree. They are amongst the worst. Presently in Italy and it seems like they are trying to compete with the Belgiums to be the worst.

It really depends where in Italy you are. We're here at the moment and there have been some excellent roads. Yes, rubbish too but I'd say the good ones are in the majority so far.
 
Heading back for the ferry from Ijmuiden and staying st a lovely site just north of Breda. So a lie in tomorrow 🥳🥳

Anyway travelled through Belgian again today and to be honest they must be the worst and most dangerous roads I’ve ever been on. That is saying something given the lack of funding for those in the north east of England.

Pot holes on wthe main roads and motorways are an understatement, more like bloody craters meaning taking your life in your hands trying to avoid or have your wheels ripped off.
Having done the journey from Nord-Rhein Westfalen in Germany to UK about 3 times a year for 30 years I'd say that that route has improved a lot. It had to after the wall came down as the freight traffic increased dramatically. Always found the surface noise on the Belgium motorways to be really bad in the past, but they seem to have improved that these days. The E42 going past Mon, Charleroi, Namur etc is dreadful, a real shocker, but they are working on it at the moment, resurfacing etc. I live in West Sussex so I'm used to bad roads! Best motorway award for me goes to Croatia and Slovenia.
 
I think you'll find the routes used by MEP's delegates,diplomats and bankers are just fine.
Most of the rest feel as though they were bombed in WW2 and never repaired.
Book in with your dentist to get your fillings replaced
 
Having done the journey from Nord-Rhein Westfalen in Germany to UK about 3 times a year for 30 years I'd say that that route has improved a lot. It had to after the wall came down as the freight traffic increased dramatically. Always found the surface noise on the Belgium motorways to be really bad in the past, but they seem to have improved that these days. The E42 going past Mon, Charleroi, Namur etc is dreadful, a real shocker, but they are working on it at the moment, resurfacing etc. I live in West Sussex so I'm used to bad roads! Best motorway award for me goes to Croatia and Slovenia.
I think the roads in Croatia have probably improved a lot since they joined the EU

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It really depends where in Italy you are. We're here at the moment and there have been some excellent roads. Yes, rubbish too but I'd say the good ones are in the majority so far.
We're south of Ancona. Yes some good roads but I still feel that they have deteriorated in last few years.
 
Heading back for the ferry from Ijmuiden and staying st a lovely site just north of Breda. So a lie in tomorrow 🥳🥳

Anyway travelled through Belgian again today and to be honest they must be the worst and most dangerous roads I’ve ever been on. That is saying something given the lack of funding for those in the north east of England.

Pot holes on wthe main roads and motorways are an understatement, more like bloody craters meaning taking your life in your hands trying to avoid or have your wheels ripped off.
I was there in my motorhome a few years ago and I was shocked at how bad the roads were and obviously there has been no improvement in them since. And we moan about potholes on this country.
 
Try the A52 in Spain, we had to drive in the outside lane as the inside one was so bad, the most of the Portuguese ones are really bad except motorways.
 
You think Belgium roads are bad now! They have improved a lot over the last few years particularly in towns where they use to be dredfull. Always found most of the motorways OK. A real boneshaker is the N8 we go out of our way to avoid that one.
They are certainly no worse than the roads in the south east of the UK where we live.
 
Heading back for the ferry from Ijmuiden and staying st a lovely site just north of Breda. So a lie in tomorrow 🥳🥳

Anyway travelled through Belgian again today and to be honest they must be the worst and most dangerous roads I’ve ever been on. That is saying something given the lack of funding for those in the north east of England.

Pot holes on wthe main roads and motorways are an understatement, more like bloody craters meaning taking your life in your hands trying to avoid or have your wheels ripped off.
I just escaped central Tuscany , trust me they trump Belgium any day, it’s avoid , or get hurt size potholes without any let off everywhere

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I wrote about this recently. We have been travelling with a Belgian couple for about a month and apparently it’s all down to local funding. In the French areas the French speakers don’t like paying taxes so the roads are rubbish but in the Dutch/Flemmish speaking areas they are happy to pay taxes ard the roads are better. He is French speaking by the way. A bit of a sweeping generalisation I expect but from the horse’s mouth.
 
You should try the roads in Edinburgh they are probably worse than Belgium. Most, mainly due to poor reinstatements by utilities. I really don't understand why this can't be fixed by insisting on 10 year warranties from them etc. There must be a way.
Oh I forgot it too hard, so let’s focus on something easier that has little or no benefit to the general public such as introducing parking restricition where no one wants them as it all ready works with out them!

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Baring in mind the UK is not throwing in to the pot any more.
So a big dent in ther income thare
Bill
 
Baring in mind the UK is not throwing in to the pot any more.
So a big dent in ther income thare
Bill
I don't know if that's true Belgium is probably a net contributer as well and the roads were just as bad before Brexit. I suspect that the impact of us leaving was overstated other countries are much higer net contributers
 
yeah the roads in belgium are crap , have been for at least 30 years that I can remember.
 
Unless you've seen the roads in Cuba you have no idea!!!

At least their motorways are almost traffic-free. No central reservation, no Armco safety barriers. And they have motorway crossroads ... :Eeek:

It is compulsory to stop for hitch hikers as well. Cuba is ... different. Been there. I loved it.

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I worked at the Duracell plant at Aarschot in Belgium for 3 years and it seemed to me that almost every car had a ladder on a roof rack. It was a standing joke among my colleagues who said it was for climbing out of the potholes.
 
Doubt it Belgium is quite a rich country.
I always thought that until the crisis when they were teetering on the brink of being the next country to go bankrupt. They had no government for nigh on 2 years back in 2009ish, a record they managed yet again to break in 2020.
 
Bad roads , try the N2 from Goma to Butembo :)


Dont think any one country has the monopoly
 
Can’t remember exactly which motorway I was on now in Belgium, probably around 2014, but heading from Luxembourg to Zeebrugge we dropped into a pothole that was full of rain water and it was raining at the time. The shock was that the wave of water actually came right over the top of a coach built Ducato and fully obscured the screen!
 
I think you'll find the routes used by MEP's delegates,diplomats and bankers are just fine.
Most of the rest feel as though they were bombed in WW2 and never repaired.
Book in with your dentist to get your fillings replaced
My favourite bit is from around Strasbourg to Brussels. All the holes have been filled, probably the only benefit of their bizarre migratory parliament.

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