(L-R) Luxembourg’s Minister for Energy and Spatial Planning, Claude Turmes; Luxembourg’s Minister for the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development, Joëlle Welfring; the Mayor of Sanem, Simone Asselborn-Bintz;
Credit: © SIP / Claude Piscitelli
Luxembourg’s Minister for Mobility and Public Works, François Bausch, along with other government ministers and key players, recently unveiled Belval's new mobility concept, a project that has evolved to address modern environmental and societal needs.
Luxembourg’s government set goals for the South region and Esch-sur-Alzette and Belval by 2035, including doubling public transport use, increasing walking journeys by two and significantly multiplying bicycle journeys (fourteen times the current amount). To achieve these objectives, there will be a redevelopment of public space and a focus on people's movements rather than vehicle movements.
The project is expected to be completed by 2028, featuring the high level of services corridor and cycle path network, with the tram's commissioning set for 2033.
The initiative also includes a comprehensive review of road organisation, creation of shared spaces, mobility hubs, and more green and leisure spaces, aligning with the goals of sustainable development and urban climate improvement. The project's implementation reportedly involves close collaboration with municipalities, transport authorities and Agora, the developer of Belval, to ensure a shared vision for improved transportation and quality of life in the region.
The programme concerns an in-depth review of the organisation of roads in order to allow the optimal insertion of dedicated technical infrastructures (tram, cycle paths, pedestrian platforms) more particularly on the boulevards Porte de France, de la Recherche, Jazz and des Lumières at the heart of the site. Further initiatives are also planned on the Hauts-Fourneaux terrace or in its immediate vicinity, including the complete transformation of Avenue du Rock'n'Roll and Avenue de la Fonte into "shared spaces" which can also be adapted into event spaces for major events organised in Belval or elsewhere re the creation, on Boulevard Porte de France, of a “mobility hub” allowing low-carbon intermodal travel, dedicated to carpooling, car-sharing of electric vehicles and bicycles and offering charging and parking facilities.
As Minister Bausch pointed out: “This new mobility offer planned according to a 2023-2033 agenda has already entered its operational phase with the commissioning of a 'pop-up bike lane' included in the cycle path route (PC8) from Pétange to Bettembourg and making it possible to now connect, on its own site, the centre of Esch-sur-Alzette to Belvaux.”
Luxembourg’s Minister for Energy and Spatial Planning, Claude Turmes, said: “The system developed in Belval is exemplary. It aims, on the one hand, to redistribute the space dedicated to individual motorised transport towards more sustainable means of transport including in particular the bus (high level of service corridor, CHNS), the tram and active mobility (cyclists and pedestrians) and, on the other hand, to create more green areas (planting trees) as well as spaces dedicated to leisure activities. Agora's approach fits perfectly with the objectives of the new Master Programme for Spatial Planning.”
Regarding this point, Joëlle Welfring, Luxembourg’s Minister for the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development, added: “The progress planned by the revisions proposed by Agora in terms of the development of public spaces, such as the revegetation of tram tracks, the generous planting of trees in roads or even the de-waterproofing of soils for the benefit of the creation of recreational or resting islands of greenery, are measures which not only have a positive impact on the urban climate, but also on citizens.”
To carry out the planning exercise, the two municipalities of Esch-sur-Alzette and Sanem were reportedly closely involved in the work of the “Mobility Belval” working group alongside representatives of the transport authorities and Agora. Simone Asselborn-Bintz, the Mayor of Sanem, and Georges Mischo, Mayor of Esch-sur-Alzette, emphasised “the quality and intensity of the exchanges which made it possible to achieve a project shared by all” with the prospect of an improvement and a very significant diversification of the offer of transport and the quality of life of the inhabitants of their two municipalities and also a “very clear strengthening of the connection capacities of the district with the two respective city centres which [they] had been hoping for for a long time."
