By Flora Szandi | October 23, 2025
The €10 billion Oosterweelverbinding (in English: Oosterweel Link) is a massive construction project in Belgium, being developed by Lantis. The 15km-long motorway connection is designed to improve traffic flows in and around Antwerp by completing the city’s ring road (R1) once construction is finished. The project consists of five major sub-projects – Linkeroever, Zwijndrecht, Scheldt tunnel, Oosterweel junction, Canal Tunnels and R1-Noord – each contributing to a greener and more connected Antwerp.
The construction of the new Scheldt Tunnel beneath the River Scheldt is a crucial part of the infrastructure project, linking the Left Bank with the port and the Eilandje district in Antwerp.
As with any major roadworks, keeping the public informed about progress, and setbacks, is essential. When the communications team needed a tool to keep the public updated, they wanted a solution that would enable a steady stream of real-time content that would also remain online long after the final bolt was fastened.
They turned to Live Blog for help, using it to cover the construction of the Scheldt Tunnel, which proved to be a highly-effective strategy. Within weeks, public interest in the project grew significantly and traffic to the project’s website surged 1,400%.
The Challenge
The Oosterweel Link project presented unique communication challenges and opportunities to its architects. For instance, transporting elements for a new tunnel under the River Scheldt included moving 60,000 tonnes elements that were prefabricated more than 100 kilometres away, and then shipped by sea and river at just six kilometres per hour.
The transportation of each element takes up to 48 hours and is both a remarkable engineering achievement – and a risk to public safety.
The project team needed a way to keep residents informed of progress without overwhelming them with overly technical phrases and expressions. They wanted to provide hourly updates without overloading social media channels, to manage public curiosity while ensuring safety around the construction sites, and to build transparency and visibility for a project often perceived as closed-off or merely technical.
At the same time, another objective was to increase engagement and attract more attention to the project’s website by providing content that encouraged visitors to return regularly and stay informed.
“We wanted to create a live blog so that we could give live updates to people where the tunnel element was at that moment and also give technical information,” said Nathalie Goovaerts, who is responsible for the project’s communication.
The Solution
The team integrated Live Blog directly into the project’s website, ensuring updates were easily accessible without redirecting users to external platforms. Posts were drafted in advance and then published in real time as milestones occurred, with the communications team receiving notifications through a WhatsApp group from engineers on-site. They used drone footage, maps, interviews, and photos to enrich the live blog posts, showing stages of the operation for the audience. Social media was used to direct people’s attention to the project, and the live blog became the core source of information.
The tool’s flexibility proved to be invaluable. Drafting and scheduling posts, embedding the live feed on their landing page, and allowing multiple contributors to collaborate made the process effortless and straightforward.
“Being able to draft posts in advance and have several people contribute made the live blog easy to manage and publish on the day itself,” said Goovaerts, emphasising how the Live Blog tool supported careful preparation.
The Result
The impact of the live blog was immediate and significant. The project’s website saw more than 30,000 visits in a single day, a huge increase from the average of 2,000. Each transport and submersion became not just an engineering milestone but a shared public event, building momentum and interest across the area of Flanders.
“We managed to turn a highly technical topic into something interesting for a lot of people. In just 24 hours, over 30,000 people visited the website, which really increased the project’s visibility,” said Goovaerts.
Significant increase in visitors to the Oosterweelverbinding website during live blogging
Beyond numbers, Live Blog helped shift how the public engages with the large-scale infrastructure project. The live updates reassured residents, engaged stakeholders, and drew press attention, and at the same time helped reduce on-site visits, keeping operations safe. Each live blog could be revisited later, allowing people to catch up on the updates and providing continuity across multiple tunnel element transports.
Using the live blogging platform, the Oosterweelverbinding’s communication team turned a technical construction process into a compelling story that captured the public’s attention. The live blog became a strategic communication asset, empowering the team to balance transparency, safety, and engagement.
“This case demonstrates Live Blog’s power to inform,” said Live Blog Project Manager Aleksandar Jeliċić. “Even for something as technical as an infrastructure project, with the right digital storytelling tool, it’s possible to connect projects with communities in an easy-to-understand-and-follow format.”
