Traffic in the medieval town of Bruges in Belgium has become such a nuisance and eyesore, that they have approved construction of an underground 'beer pipeline.' The below-the-streets system will link the historic, De Halve Maan brewery to a facility that does its bottling nearly two miles away.
Reportedly, there are 500 delivery trucks a year that travel the roads of Bruges. Not only were they an eye sore, they were also noisy, and tourists were worried about the damage the heavy vehicles would cause to the town's cobblestone streets.
The De Halve Maan brewery stepped up and offered to fund the underground pipeline that will eliminate the need for delivery trucks on the streets and will transport 1,500 gallons of beer every hour.
According to the brewery's director, Xavier Vanneste, they were also concerned about the environmental impact they were having from needing so many trucks to keep up with transporting their production. More than the finances involved in building and running the pipeline, he said they are more driven to improve the quality of life in Bruges and ease their concerns of preserving the atmosphere of one of Belgium's top historical tourist spots.
"The beer will take 10 to 15 minutes to reach the bottling plant. By using the pipeline we will keep hundreds of lorries out of the city center," Vanneste said in commenting how the beer pipeline will make production more efficient as well as out of sight and mind for the town and visiting tourists.
The only other pipeline of this sort in existence is in Gelsenkirchen, Germany where local bars are interconnected by a 5 km long pipeline.
There also used to be a beer pipeline in Randers, Denmark that connected the downtown Thor Brewery to local bars in the area.
Construction of the Belgium pipeline is set to begin sometime in 2015.
