Motoring organisations VAB and Touring sounded a **red traffic alert** on Saturday, 18 July, forecasting some of the worst congestion of the summer on Europe’s main north–south corridors. Their advice matters not only to Belgian holiday-makers but also to expatriates on home leave and assignees planning cross-border car trips from Brussels and Antwerp. France tops the danger list: the A1, A6 and A7 motorways towards the Mediterranean are expected to crawl for much of the day, compounded by wildfire-related closures near Fontainebleau earlier this week. Germany’s A3, A5 and A8—key routes for trucks serving the Benelux-DACH supply chain—will also be heavily affected by roadworks and thunderstorms. Austria’s Brenner and Tauern corridors, Switzerland’s Gotthard tunnel and Italy’s Autostrada del Sole are likewise flagged for multi-hour delays. VAB recommends that drivers leaving Belgium postpone departure until Sunday or travel overnight, carry additional water in view of predicted 30 °C temperatures, and download the **EETS** (European Electronic Toll Service) app to avoid queuing at toll booths. Touring, meanwhile, is urging employers with posted workers to review duty-of-care procedures: fatigue-related accidents spike by 12 % on red-alert Saturdays, according to Belgian road-safety institute VIAS. Corporate mobility managers should circulate the alert to staff with fleet vehicles and consider allowing remote work on Monday for those returning by car. Logistics teams may need to redesign delivery schedules; UPS Belgium, for example, told clients it will pre-position parcels in Lille and Cologne to skip peak bottlenecks. The alert is expected to remain in force until midnight Saturday, after which traffic should revert to “orange” conditions.
Source: The Brussels Times
