Pierre Alix knows he is doomed. The funeral center, of which he chairs the operating council, deserves to bow out. Four decades after its commissioning, the structure has become obsolete: “Today, we are trying to keep the device in operation. The cremation equipment is out of breath. We have already had a lot of problems…” An example that adds to the pain of a ceremony: the explosion of a pacemaker, at the time of the incineration, “requiring the total repair of the interior of the ovens. It’s already happened…” When death wants to be even more cruel.
The installation’s filtration system, common to the three ovens in working order, also gave the maintenance teams cold sweats. This design from another time constitutes an almost unique case in France (only the Père-Lachaise crematorium has the same model): “If the filtration breaks down, it is therefore the whole system that is threatened”, observes the municipal deputy responsible for civil status and service to the population.
To these structural difficulties is added the unsuitable configuration of the premises. The ceremony room can only accommodate 80 people. The site still suffers from another deficit by offering only eight exhibition halls. Too little to absorb the “activity” in serene conditions, which has continued to grow in recent years. In 2022, the Thionvillois funeral center recorded 2,708 cremations: “This no longer allows us to offer relatives a long exposure of the bodies of the deceased. »
The project
This deadly diagnosis is now leading the City to equip itself with a new infrastructure. The chosen site is the warehouse occupied by Transdev which borders the Saint-François cemetery. A (large) budget of around €10 million has been allocated to the project to create a brand new funeral centre. Three operators are in the running for this contract. These candidates must comply with specifications which provide for: twelve exhibition halls with a minimum surface area of 24 m2 three ovens capable of treating large coffins (and equipped with an individual filtration system!) as well as two ceremonial rooms, the first being able to accommodate 70 people and the second 200 guests.
Moderate price increase
This substantial investment will be passed on, in part, to the pricing policy of the funeral center: “We are not going to revalue excessively but remain in this moderate part compared to other centers managed by the private sector. Our rates are the lowest in the Grand Est,” says Pierre Alix.
The duration of the work should be spread over 26 months for delivery expected at the end of 2025, beginning of 2026. Until then, we will have to pray that the crematorium will do its job without inconvenience…
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