Rouen: the construction of a bypass motorway about to be abandoned?

The project to build a 41.5 km motorway to bypass Rouen from the east may well never materialize … “I had underestimated the state of the planet, the dramatic consequences of global warming” , declared Monday evening the president of the Metropolis Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, qualified as “gravedigger of the bypass” by the opposition adviser Jean-Marc Vennin. According to him, his town, Le Mesnil-Esnard, is crossed by “a thousand heavy goods vehicles per day”. Also mayor of Rouen, Mr. Mayer-Rossignol, 43, was in favor of this toll motorway project to link the A13 and the A28 when he chaired the former Haute-Normandie region. But he finally changed his mind during the campaign for the municipal elections of 2020 which he won in alliance with EELV.

And Monday shortly before midnight, after more than five hours of debate, the metropolitan council decided by 76 votes against 43 and four abstentions to “not finance” this bypass where traffic would produce 50,000 tons of C02 per year, or 50 days of ’emission from an area of ​​700,000 inhabitants, “a disaster”, according to EELV. Only eight elected representatives out of 53 of the socialist group and citizens voted for the bypass, while in 2016 the metropolis already dominated by the PS allied to EELV had clearly approved it.

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However, “if the Metropolis votes no, the State will not impose this infrastructure. The project would, in fact, be abandoned”, had indicated the prefect of Normandy Pierre-André Durand on January 26 to the press. A 2017 agreement provided for a participation of 245 million euros from the State, 157 million from the Region, 66 million from the Metropolis and 22 million from the Seine-maritime department. The contribution of the future concessionaire was to be 396 million. “The bypass is in great danger”, reacted in a press release Bertrand Bellanger, president LREM of the departmental council of Seine-maritime which in mid-January voted the confirmation of its participation in this project “useful for the decongestion of the agglomeration” . The PS then recognized “disagreements” within it on the subject.

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The region chaired by a supporter of the project, Hervé Morin (the Centrists), must vote on Monday. A fervent defender of bypassing, metropolitan councilor and member of the majority of the former minister for the region, Pascal Houbron still wanted to believe in Tuesday morning. “The region could quite possibly finance part of what the metropolis does not want to do,” said this elected official on France Bleu Seine-maritime / Eure.

Questioned Tuesday, the Ministry of Transport, the region and the department did not immediately follow up. In a letter of January 13 sent to the three communities which were to finance the section, and of which AFP had a copy, the prefect put forward “a project crucial for the economic attractiveness of the agglomeration”. “Rouen remains the only French metropolis of this size without bypassing the road, which translates into a significant flow of heavy goods vehicles in urban areas”, continues Pierre-André Durand. “Let’s say yes to the 1,100 jobs mobilized during the 4 years of work”, argued metropolitan councilor Julien Demazure (LR) during the council.

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But for Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, “in terms of decongestion, the file was not at all convincing”. And with the cost constantly rising from the consequences of CO2, “the financial interest of the project is canceled”, argued the mining engineer relying on criteria of the European Investment Bank (EIB). In recent years “extremely important things have happened” such as “the amplification, at the initiative of Greta Thunberg, of climate awareness”, for his part pleaded the vice-president PS in charge of finances Nicolas Rouly to justify his own turnaround. The opposition is not convinced. “We are told that the road will be supplanted by the river and rail, but the State has disengaged from these means of transport for decades,” argued Mr. Vennin.

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