The cause of the extreme traffic jams was the closure of the Holz roundabout, which connects the N4 towards Leudelange and Route d'Esch. The roundabout has been closed since Monday and instead, motorists were meant to use the new bridge via Boulevard de Kockelscheuer to access Cloche d'Or.
The new stretch of Boulevard de Kockelscheuer allows motorists arriving from the south to join the busy neighbourhood of the capital. On Tuesday morning, the situation remained a touch-and-go one, but was already incomparable with the chaos brought by the first day of the bridge's opening. Mobility councillor for the City of Luxembourg Patrick Goldschmidt explained that adapting to a new route is always a bit tricky for motorists, but additionally, the new traffic lights on Boulevard de Kockelscheuer were not yet in operation. This caused longer traffic jams on Monday morning and evening, which in turn filtered through onto the area's other busy thoroughfare, Boulevard Raiffeisen.
As of Tuesday, the traffic lights are operational and the city authorities will monitor them to adjust timings throughout the week, if required. Goldschmidt explained that on both boulevards, traffic lights change every 90 seconds usually. Even changing lights by a second can have an impact. The councillor provided reassurances that the authorities will adjust the lights as required in order to streamline traffic.
The roads and bridges authority also reacted to the chaos on Route d'Esch. Representative Robert Biel stressed that the bridge to the Holz roundabout, which was initially due to reopen in April, will be open to traffic again in three weeks time. Biel explained that there had been fears the bridge would be demolished, but this would not be the case. The bridge is relatively new, and whilst the roundabout will be redeveloped, as it no longer has a function, the bridge will remain.
The roundabout will instead be rebuilt into a straight route with four lanes linking Kockelscheuer directly with Route d'Esch. By the end of November, the authorities will open a lane in each direction to help improve traffic.
One improvement is clear, namely that for motorists parking at the Sud P&R. As of the end of last week, there is now a safe pedestrian route to the Cloche d'Or. All the largescale roadworks in the Cloche d'Or area are due to be completed by spring 2020, showing an end in sight for at least some of Luxembourg's traffic-plagued drivers.
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