Houthalen-Helchteren (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – About 10 empty buildings near Grote Baan in Houthalen-Helchteren will be secured. Marijn Struyf (De Werkvennootschap) says alarms helped stop 5 intrusions. 150 demolitions planned.
As VRT News reported, about 10 empty buildings near the new tunnel project in Houthalen-Helchteren, a municipality in the province of Limburg, Belgium, will be made safe. The buildings are near Grote Baan. They have been empty for a long time. People are now going inside them without permission.
One month ago, someone entered the old steakhouse De Kempen. He was an urban explorer. That means he looks for empty places to explore. The building is not safe. Other buildings on Noord-Zuid street are also not safe. More people have been seen going into them. Some buildings are now closed with boards. The city will now use experts to close all 10 buildings.
What security measures are in place for vacant buildings in Houthalen?
After the first break-in, more empty buildings in the area had the same problem. People started going inside them without permission. This made people in the area and the city worry about safety. Some were afraid the tunnel work might be delayed. The city has already closed some buildings with wooden boards. One of them was the old meat restaurant.
Marijn Struyf from De Werkvennootschap says that some security was already there, but it did not stop people from entering the empty buildings. So now, they are adding more protection. They are putting up cameras and alarm systems around some of the buildings.
Officials mentioned that the goal is not to protect what is in the buildings. The goal is to make local people feel safer. Many people in the area are worried because strangers are going into the buildings. The new security is there to stop that and help the neighbourhood feel more at ease.
Last weekend, about 5 alarms went off. Each time, people were seen and quickly ran away. The bigger plan for the North-South tunnel needs about 150 buildings to be torn down. Right now, only 8 buildings have been removed.
Most of the others will be taken down early next year. Until then, many buildings will stay empty. That is why the city is using these security steps for now. They want to keep the area safe and avoid more problems before the next part of the work begins.
