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The Ports and Waterways Project in Belgium will provide financing for the modernization of the Belgian transport system. This project will consist of completion of the Baudouin at the Port of Antwerp; southern and western sections of the Ring Canal, which will be constructed around the City of Ghent; the Baudour-Blaton section of the Nimry-Blaton- Peronnes Canal in the Wilestern Hainaut industrial area; improvement on the Charleroi-Seneffe section of the Brussels-Charleroi Canal; and the construction of a dam, and lock system at Neuville-sous- Huy on the Namur-Liege section of the Upper Meuse. There is a need to increase the capacity of many sections of the canals, which have not been modernized since their construction in the nineteenth century. The older stretches cannot accommodate barges larger than 300 tons, and traffic along them is made slower and more expensive by frequent locks and curves, obsolete hand-operated bridges, and other technical limitations. The cost of moving traffic on routes whose traffic is limited by the old sections is about twice as high as on the modern sections.