Published
Update
The franceinfo Talk returns to the motorway project between Toulouse and Castres, a project contested by environmental associations and scientists. Ludo Pauchant receives urban planner Maxime Génévrier, Yamina Saheb, researcher at the OFCE and author of the third IPCC report and Jose Rexach, founder of Humeco.
Monday October 16, the government decided to carry out the A69 motorway project “until its end”. This project, linking Castres to Toulouse, received the support of a “very large majority” elected officials according to the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune. However, on October 21 and 22, a new demonstration against the project took place on the site, an operation called “Ramdam on the tarmac”.
The A69 construction site in a few figures
From protests from various environmental and scientific activists, the number of kilometers of the project is strongly criticized. According to the figures of project website, the motorway project between Castres and Toulouse must be 53 km long. Over this distance, 9 km of section are redeveloped, 44 km being new route.
In addition, the number of light vehicles expected each day amounts to 8,000 on average “and nearly 900 heavy goods vehicles”. In this sense, the project does not seem to be in line with France’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction objectives in the context of the climate crisis.
Another point of dispute is the time saved by the construction of the A69 motorway. This would amount to 15 minutes, contrary to the declarations of the prefecture of the Occitanie regionwhich boasts a saving of around 25 minutes.
A mobilization organized on October 21 and 22
Saturday October 21, from numerous environmental activists, unions and farmers met in Tarn against the A69 construction project. If tensions were noted on the sidelines of the demonstration, as fire broke out in a cement factory near Castres by a group of “400 people”, the day of mobilization has been “successful” for the Uprisings of the Earth, despite these few excesses.