1. Welcome Agency for roads and traffic
Ladies and gentleman, welcome in the offices of the Flanders Roads and Traffic Agency, and welcome all of you on this workshop on the transmigration problems on our roadnetwork
Happy to see the large number of participants
19 different organisations
More than 7 nationalities
6 NRA’s
In this short welcome I would like to give:
As your host, a quick overview of the Agency for roads and traffic
As the initiator of this workshop, a brief introduction to the problems we encounter on our roads
As a member of the Governing Board of CEDR, an overview of the involvement of CEDR > why do we use the CEDR platform to discuss the topic
ir. Tom Roelants February 6th, 2017

2. As you probably know: Belgium is a federal state with 3 regions, Flanders, Wallonie and Brussel. The 3 regions are responsible for land-related responsibilitys, among which are mobility and public works. As an agency of the Flemisch Government, we are responsible for the motorways and regional roads.
Just note that “home security” is a federal responsibility. It means that different political levels are involved in the transmigration issue, which makes it more complicated to handle.

3. A few numbers:
1500 kms motorways
5400 kms regional roads
Total: kms roads

4. Agency Tasks
Management, maintenance and optimisation of the entrusted roads
Smooth and safe road traffic organisation
Provide information and ensure communication
Help design policy

5. Agency for Roads and Traffic: Strategic objectives
Accessibility: selectively guarantee the accessibility of economic intersections and gateways
Availability: Selectively guarantee the mobility of everyone in Flanders.
Reducing the trafficunsafety
Improve traffic liveability despite the increasing mobility
Reducing the damage to the environment and nature, even if mobility continues to increase
The problem of transit migrants isn’t directly covered by our strategic objectives, and is/was not a core task of our agency
Although, to have an accesible and available mobility system, parking and rest areas (in order to respect travel and rest times) are necessary and NRA’s do provide these facilities

6. Road network
Here you see a map of the road network in the management of our agency.
The blue roads are the highways, the red roads are the regional road network
We are faced with transit migrants on the lorry parkings on the highways towards the coast
Trying to reach the UK
Mainly on the western part of Flanders
mainly towards the port of Calais.
A detailled presentation from our problems will be given by Tom Debruyn/Kristof Rombaut later this afternoon

7. Impact on Road Safety and Security
On parking sites for lorries
Refugees climbing into trucks (in containers, under suspension)
Pedestrians crossing the highway to reach parking sites
On the roads
Pedestrians making their way on hard shoulder and first lane
Migrants trying to stop trucks to climb onboard
Trees being cut down in live traffic
Stones thrown at trucks
Fire on the roads
Why is the transmigration topic a problem for NRA’s and their road managers?
Two mains reasons:
Road safety
Security/liveability on parking areas
Road safety and liveability om parking and rest sites along our motorways is our daily business. So transmigration is tackling our core business in more than 1 way.
DIA
In Flanders, from a road operator point of view, we face mainly problems with transmigrants on parking sites for lorries.
In our neighbouring country France we even see worse problems.

8. Impact on road operator
Reduced network availability
Reduced parking capacity due to closing of parkings with low social control.
Damage to infrastructure
Fences cut
Damage to trees: branches cut to climb into trucks
Littering
garbage, …
improvised bridges
High expectations towards automatic detection of migrants and people smugglers
Slide: impact on road operator
What is the experience of other NRA’s?
What are the problems, expectations en solutions of other NRA’s?
-> suggestion to organise a CEDR workshop on the transit migration problem

9. Created on September 18th, 2003
Platform for cooperation between Road Directors
Mission
Contribute to future developments of road traffic and networks as part of an integrated transport system
Promote international network of personal contacts between Road Directors and their staff
To provide a platform for understanding and responding to common problems
26 member countries accros Europe
Why did we use the CEDR platform to discuss this topic?
Everybody familiar with CEDR? What does CEDR stand for?

10. Strategic objectives
• To help NRAs to keep ahead of the curve, anticipate future trends and prepare them to face new challenges
• To reinforce NRAs role as key providers of efficient and seamless mobility from an end user perspective within the transport system
• To facilitate and optimize the efficient use of resources, making the best use of existing infrastructures.
• To improve the safety and sustainability of roads, and reduce their environmental impact and carbon footprint.

11. Action Plan 2017-2019 In the past: 3 strategic plans for 4 years
New strategy including a three-year rolling Action Plan
More flexibel
5 Focus Areas
Digitalisation and innovation.
Environment and resilience.
Safety, operations and mobility.
Resources, asset management and performance.
Regulation and harmonization.
Workshop transmigration is a good example of the flexibel new strategic plan, which allows us to discuss this new challenge

12. Thank you I want to thank:
CEDR, especially our secretary-general Steve and Marta for the organisation of the workshop and the support
Colleagues AWV for the presentations and organisation of the workshop
All the participants for the contributions (today and tomorrow)
The purpose of the workshop is not to come to come to a ready-made guide.
Learn to know new people
Learn to know other organisations
So that we can also later contact each other with our problems and experiences.
The pupose of the workshop is also to
Exchange ideas and experiences
Learn form each other so the come quicker to good results
I wish you all:
A fruitfull workshop
That the stories of each other will inspire you all