The Liefkenshoek tunnel remains a busy axis. No fewer than 11.3 million cars drove through the paying tunnel last year. This is a slight decrease of 0.4 percent compared to the traffic jam record year of 2024. The annual turnover therefore remains stable and fluctuates around 80 million euros, excluding VAT.
It is striking that the tunnel is made toll-free less and less often. According to the annual analysis of Tunnel Liefkenshoek NV, this happened only once in 2025, during a five-hour time block towards the Netherlands. During that period, 9,367 vehicles could drive through the tunnel free of charge.
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Such toll-free periods are mainly used to deal with traffic problems elsewhere. In 2022, this happened for 237 hours, accounting for approximately 1 million euros in ‘shadow toll‘ that the Flemish government had to pay. That was a significant peak compared to 71 hours in 2021. In 2023, the number of toll-free hours fell to 180. With only four hours in 2024 and five hours in 2025, the tunnel is hardly opened free of charge these days.
At the request of the Traffic Center
“The five toll-free hours came at the request of the Traffic Center. In other cases, such as during night-time works or construction sites at Lantis, the tunnel also became temporarily free,” explains Peter Bruyninckx of the Flemish Traffic Center. “The measure has been in place for more than twenty years and is intended to quickly divert traffic to the northern side of the ring (R2) via the Liefkenshoek tunnel in the event of serious incidents on the R1, the busy axis along Merksem and the Kennedy tunnel.”
“This measure came about in a period when the R2 was little used, except for freight traffic for the port area. Making the tunnel toll-free was useful at the time to encourage people to drive extra kilometers. Today, many drivers spontaneously take that route, even with tolls.”
That is why the Flemish Traffic Center is increasingly opting to refer traffic from the R1 to the Liefkenshoek tunnel. “The current R2 can no longer be compared with that of twenty years ago,” says Bruyninckx. “It is now standardly busy on weekdays and this is often accompanied by traffic jams. There is little point in sending motorists from one traffic jam to another.”
“Remains a consideration”
In addition, there were long-term works on the Beverentunnel in 2024 and 2025. “As a result, the R2 was not fully available and traffic towards Beveren took busy diversions through the port area. In such a construction site situation, additional diversion is not desirable.”
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However, this does not mean that the Flemish Traffic Center will definitively abandon the measure. “With every incident, we work with the police to determine what the best alternative is for the road user. If the R2 is also saturated, making the Liefkenshoek tunnel toll-free makes little sense. That always remains a trade-off.”
