Par Nicholas Gosselin
Published on
It will be there soon tolls on the motorway between Bordeaux and Arcachon ? The issue has not been resolved but remains as topical as ever as it will be the subject of itpublic consultation from 30 January 2023, for a period of three months.
Indeed, the State plans to upgrade the A63 motorway to 2×3 lanes between the Bordeaux ring road and Salles and proposes to finance this colossal work with a concession of this motorway section 35 kilometers long.
The people will have their say
The National Public Debate Commission (CNDP) decided on March 2, 2022 to carry out a consultation with the supervisor on this A63 development project. It will be launched on January 30, 2023 for a period of three months and will be supervised by two guarantors of public debate. A dedicated website will be made available to participate in this consultation, as well as filing cabinets and registers, public meetings, workshops or even mobile debates (motorway areas, universities, commercial areas, etc.).
Unveiled in March 2021, this project had blown local elected officials to the ceiling at the time. This was especially true for Karine Desmoulinfirst deputy mayor of Teich, who had launched a petition addressed to the Minister of Transportwhich now has more than 25,000 signatures.
“We will not pay for access to go to work”
” This is a project completely disconnected from the reality of our territory, storms the departmental councilor and president of tourism of the Gironde. Many inhabitants of the Arcachon Basin travel this road every day. Me, the first one who works in Bordeaux. We don’t see you paying for access to go to work or go home. »
Taking the car, when you have no choice, is already expensive given the price of petrol. If we also add a toll, it is simply inconceivable in the current situation.
A year and a half later, Jean-Baptiste Djebarri left the ministry but the project to widen the A63 has not been shelved. The state justifies it “heavy congestion” on the highway between Bordeaux and Salles as well as“an accident rate higher than national benchmarks on roads of the same type”.
Identification of heavy vehicles in transit
For Karine Desmoulin, the saturation of this stretch of motorway – which supports traffic from 34,000 to 80,000 vehicles per day – is generated by (too many) trucks in transit.
It is an important European axis of the North-South Atlantic corridor between Northern Europe, France and Spain. It is not up to the Girondins to finance the infrastructure for international trade in heavy goods vehicles. We have to imagine a new means of transport compared to road transport. (…) I am thinking of the railway. Therefore, there would be no need to widen the highway to 3 lanes.
“We are fiercely opposed to this project. If the state services decide not to take our position into account, it will be an open battle ”, threatens Teich’s elected representative.
An alternative scenario is proposed
Aware of this local rebellion, the State services propose in the context of this public consultation an alternative scenario to the concession consisting in the widening of the A63 to only 2×3 lanes between the Bordeaux ring road and the Cestas junction. “This scenario would be financed with public funds”, specifies the Gironde prefecture.
A compromise that could make everyone agree. First response expected towards the end of the first half of 2023, with the public consultation closing on 30 April.
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