QUALIROUTES: the Walloon roads standard
By the ArchiMind teamUpdated on
What QUALIROUTES is
QUALIROUTES is the Walloon standard specification for roadworks. It covers roads, sewerage and civil works, and it is published by the Public Service of Wallonia.
It is the roads counterpart of the CCTB. Both texts come from the same region but not from the same administration, and they do not resemble each other: different domains, different numbering, and above all a different way of working. Confusing the two costs time at the moment of writing.
A point of method first: the online version of the standard specification is the current version. It is not a PDF you download once. The text that applies to your contract, however, is the one the contract designates, and it stays that one until handover.
The editions: one update a year
QUALIROUTES is updated annually, in January. The edition in force carries the date 1 January 2026.
That update changed chapters A, C, D, E, F, G, H, K, N and Q. The list matters in practice: if your file covers works governed by a chapter that changed, the gap between two editions is not theoretical.
An annual rhythm has a direct consequence for long files. A study that opens in November and goes to tender in March crosses an edition. Name the edition in the special specification, and do not let the reference drift to "the latest online version": that phrase changes meaning every January.
How the text is put together
QUALIROUTES chapters carry a letter. Below the chapter come sections, then articles, and the numbering repeats the chapter letter followed by numeric levels: C.3.4.7.2.1.2, for example.
Codes run as deep as eight segments. It is a very fine-grained text, and that fineness is useful: it lets you name exactly the prescription you are derogating from, without retyping prose. The bookmark tree of the official PDF holds 5,293 entries, which gives a sense of the scale.
Two chapters are worth knowing separately. Chapter A carries the administrative clauses. Chapter Q carries the tests; it is updated like the others, but it has no special-specification model, because tests are not derogated from project by project.
How a roads specification is written
This is where roads part company with buildings, and the gap is structural.
For a building, the designer composes the specification: they take the articles of the standard text they need, adapt them and assemble them. The final document contains the text.
For roads, the standard text is incorporated by reference. The designer does not copy its articles: they write a special specification that records, article by article, the derogations and additions to that text. "Article D. 1.2.1 is completed as follows: …". The special specification is therefore a document of differences, not an enriched copy.
The bill of quantities follows the same separated logic. For buildings, the articles carry their own measurement clauses, and the bill follows from the specification. For roads, the items come from the Catalogue des Postes Normalisés, the CPN: pricing a project means selecting the items that describe it. The technical text and the item list are two distinct sources.
On top of that sits the official CSC Modèle: per-chapter skeletons, A to P plus chapter X for direct-labour and miscellaneous works, with the tender form. Chapter A is largely prefilled there; the technical chapters are per-article placeholders carrying drafting instructions.
QUALIROUTES and the CCTB
The question is not which of the two references is better, but which one applies.
The nature of the works decides before geography does. A building in Wallonia falls under the CCTB. A road, a sewer or a civil structure in Wallonia falls under QUALIROUTES.
Watch for a common trap: the surroundings of a building do not move to QUALIROUTES by themselves. The CCTB covers them in its tome 9. A mixed contract can cite both texts, but the split is written in the contract documents; it does not follow from the nature of the works alone. And when a contract cites both, each part keeps its text, its edition and its numbering: mixing two numbering systems in one lot makes the document unreadable on site.
In ArchiMind
QUALIROUTES is available in ArchiMind, alongside the CCTB and the VMSW bestek. You start a project on the 2026 edition of the CCT and work in the structure of the text: lettered chapters, sections, articles, and the numbering of the standard specification. The ingest of that edition produced 4,261 template nodes and 4,551 sections.
Two limits, said plainly. Creating your own template on the QUALIROUTES referential is not possible yet; the official template is there, one of your own is not.
And the product composes articles today, the way it does for a building. How roads actually work — a special specification recording derogations to the text, and a bill of quantities built by selecting items from the CPN — asks for separate mechanics, and those are being built. We would rather write that here than let you find it: if your contract expects a specification of derogations, that is not yet the shape the product produces.
What to remember
QUALIROUTES is the Walloon standard specification for roads, sewerage and civil works, published by the Public Service of Wallonia and updated every January; the edition in force is that of 1 January 2026. Its chapters carry a letter and its codes run to eight segments. A roads specification is not a composed specification: it is a document of derogations to the text, with a bill of quantities built from the CPN. And the surroundings of a building stay in the CCTB, tome 9.
Read next: which standard specification applies to your project, the CCTB in detail, the VMSW specification, and the definitions of QUALIROUTES, special specification and bill of quantities.
Sources and references
Frequently asked questions
Who publishes QUALIROUTES and what does it cover?
The Public Service of Wallonia publishes it. It covers roads, sewerage and civil works in Walloon contracts. It is the roads counterpart of the CCTB, which covers buildings: two texts, two administrations, two numbering systems. The online version of the standard specification is the current one.
How often is QUALIROUTES updated?
Once a year, in January. The edition in force carries the date 1 January 2026, and that update touched chapters A, C, D, E, F, G, H, K, N and Q. An annual rhythm means a long project can run across two successive editions before it reaches tender.
How are QUALIROUTES articles numbered?
A chapter letter followed by numeric levels, for example C.3.4.7.2.1.2. Codes run as deep as eight segments, which makes for a very fine-grained text. The letter places the chapter, the digits place the article inside it, and the code reads without a table of contents.
Is a roads specification written like a building one?
No, and this is the difference that matters. For a building, the designer composes the specification from the articles of the standard text. For roads, the text is incorporated by reference: the special specification records derogations and additions to that text, article by article.
What is the Catalogue des Postes Normalisés?
It is the standardised list of measurement items for roadworks, separate from the technical text. For buildings, the specification articles carry their own measurement clauses. For roads, you build the bill of quantities by selecting items from the catalogue, which makes it a separate operation.
Does QUALIROUTES cover the surroundings of a building?
Not automatically, and this is a common mistake. The surroundings of a building fall under the CCTB, which covers them in its tome 9. A mixed contract can cite both texts, but the split is written in the contract documents: it does not follow from the nature of the works alone.