Noord-Zuid
De Noord-Zuid-verbinding, meaning the North-South connection, meaning the road between the North and South of Limburg has known a loooong history of difficulties. In 1973 the proposal to build a motorway to connect Eindhoven with Huy in Wallonia was approved. There was a lot of protest from Central Limburg, but construction had already started in North Limburg. The route was limited and with the increasing traffic since the 70’s, the negative impact on the road and the region increased and reached a low point in the 1990’s. A solution for the North-South connection has been discussed since 1975, with various alternatives on the table: a diversion or a transit route. In 2017 a new consortium ‘Project Noord-Zuid Limburg’ was set up to solve the matter once and for all.
The research team Studio NZL from UHasselt is responsible for the participatory part of the project. First step was to gather the stories of as much actors as possible. That’s where I came in! Together with illustrator Jenny Stieglitz I hopped on a tandem for 62 kilometers to literally cycle down the road from Hasselt to Eindhoven and interview as many people as possible. Our very low key way of moving around opened many doors and hearts to speak upon the matter.
We talked to people in the streets who gave us their story and the names of people who they thought or knew had something useful to say about the road. So along the way we got to the bottom of the story and found exactly the right people to talk to. We asked people about their experiences, about stories they heard, about crucial points on the road, in the area, on the environment, … We documented our trip with text, video, photography, illustrations and put everything in an extensive map so the studio could take their next step in the process.
There was wind and rain but also hot coco, coffee, croque monsieurs and all these great stories to keep us going. We accomplished our mission successfully and I’m sure I’ll never ever again have the experience of driving down the road on a tandem !