Big Useless Constructions...

Another thing we're quite good at in Belgium is big constructions. You name it, we build it. Roads, bridges, highways, towers... The only funny thing is that a lot of the things we build are completely useless...

It's a phenomenon so current, it's actually mentioned on http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grands_travaux_inutiles

So what exactly am I talking about... Some examples...

In Antwerp, they thought they needed a Metro. So they built one... Now, about 20 years later, not even 1 metro has passed through the tunnels. So now they are used for... growing mushrooms...

In the same city, Antwerp, they started to build a tunnel, 30 years ago. During the construction of this tunnel, they built a temporary bridge. Last year, in 2006, they finally demolished the 'temporary' bridge, after more then 30 years. Funny detail... The tunnel was finished, but will never be used. The passage is too small for buses to pass...

In Leuven, another city in Belgium, they built a new hospital wing for the St-Peter hospital. 622 new beds. The wing was finished in 1983, but was never used because a change in the government's hospital policy. It'll be torn down next year...

Some people actually made a website with some of the useless building projects...

http://www.nuttelozewerken.nl/index.php

http://www.nuttelozewerken.nl/indexen.php (limited english version)

Some pictures...

Bridge, never used... Cost: 6 milion euro

Another bridge, never used... Cost: 7 milion euro

Boat Elevator, hardly never used... Cost: 647 milion euros !!!

This is an actual railway for boats. It transports a boat from a river, to an other river, 68m downhill. This is without doubt the most useless thing ever built in Belgium...

They make more money from visiting tourists than from boats passing...

Cost: a LOT of money...

For people who want to visit this thing: http://www.ronquieres.be/

On the website, linked higher in this post, there are a lot more pictures and examples of how we belgians like to throw away their money... On the website you can also find similar useless things in other countries. But what to say, if you count all the useless building of all the other countries, there's still less of them than in Belgium...

Well, the USA likes to spend billions on war, we spend it on building things we don't need...