Monumental Works, Lasting Impact

01

Kick-Off – Meet & Brief at the Oosterweel Gateway

Your expert guide welcomes the group at a strategic meeting point near the Oosterweel works, where everyday city life meets one of Europe’s largest construction zones. After brief introductions, the guide joins your vehicle and outlines the route ahead, highlighting key construction sites, future connections and the areas where Antwerp is being reshaped above and below ground. With cranes, viaducts and excavation sites already in view, the setting is the perfect starting point for an in depth journey into the city and port of tomorrow.

02

First Stop – The Big Picture from Above

We begin at a lookout tower offering a sweeping view over the Oosterweel works, the ideal place to grasp the scale and ambition of the project. From this vantage point, our guide sets the framework for the entire tour, explaining what is being built, why these choices were made and how such monumental construction unfolds step by step in the heart of Antwerp.

03

Oosterweel Church – Where the Story Began

We pass by the Oosterweel Church, the place that gave its name to the entire project and one of the last remaining traces of a village that once stood here. This stop tells the story of how the city and port grew over time, the opportunities that expansion created and the sacrifices that came with it, while the vast Port of Antwerp unfolds in the distance as a powerful reminder of that growth.

04

Port and City in Dialogue – The Port House

At the iconic Port House, designed by Zaha Hadid, we stand at the exact boundary between the port and the city of Antwerp. Surrounded by the Oosterweel works, this stop shows how the city has expanded over the past decade, while the striking architecture of the building itself reflects Antwerp’s ambition to connect heritage, innovation and growth.

05

Urban Expansion at the Waterfront – Het Eilandje

Passing through Het Eilandje, Antwerp’s most recently developed city quarter, you see how former docklands have rapidly transformed into a dense and vibrant urban area. Along the old docks, the presence of a major new hospital highlights both the speed of this expansion and why the city must continue to grow beyond its historic limits.

06

Engineering in Motion – Shaping Land and Water

Leaving the city behind, we drive straight into the heart of the construction zone, crossing a bridge that reveals how water and earth are quite literally being moved to create new connections. Along the way, we pass the massive concrete plant where thousands of tonnes of material are produced, underscoring the industrial scale required to make this project possible.

07

Urban Surgery at Full Scale – Keeping the City Moving

We drive through the outskirts of town, areas soon to be absorbed by the expanding city through the Oosterweel project, and arrive near the iconic Sportpaleis, now known as the Afas Dome. Here, the ring road around Antwerp undergoes its most delicate operation: a complex system of bypasses and temporary routes that keep the vital artery of city and port flowing, while the ground quite literally trembles beneath one of the most challenging phases of the works.

08

Where Past and Future Converge

On the return to the city, we pass a series of carefully chosen vantage points that bring the full Oosterweel story together. Along seemingly abandoned docks and through newly thriving neighbourhoods born from recent expansions, history and future meet in a city and port built on more than a thousand years of foundations.