The mayors of Grésivaudan and the elected officials of the department met, this Monday, April 11, to discuss the decisions to be taken, a week after the arson, “likely to be qualified as a terrorist”, according to the prosecution, on the bridge of Brignoud. Henri Baile, the president of the community of communes of Grésivaudan, and Jean-Pierre Barbier, president of the department of Isère, asked AREA, which manages the motorway, to make the Crolles toll free. The motorway operator partially and under conditions granted this request, since from now on, the Aréa badge is free for all new subscribers and a 50% reduction will be applied on all journeys between Crolles and Le Touvet, for all users making at least 10 round trips in the month and this over the next 3 months. A step welcomed by elected officials but which, according to them, deserves to go further. This is why they addressed themselves directly to the state servicesgrantor of the A41, in order to obtain total free access for this section, “measure which goes in the direction of the general and economic interest of the territory”, says Henri Baile. “We propose to take stock of the effectiveness of this measure and its cost within three months and pending the final expertise of the bridge”, he adds. A letter to this effect was co-signed by Henri Baile and Jean-Pierre Barbier for the attention of Bruno Le Maire (Minister of the Economy) and Jean-Baptiste Djebbari (Minister of Transport).
Alternate routes in place
The closure of the bridge causes many problems and has led to reports of significant flows on departmental roadscausing slowdowns and traffic jams and therefore delays for individuals and schools. “We immediately asked SMMAG and the operator TOUGO to ensure continuity of services via alternative routes, guaranteeing even in “degraded” mode, routes, particularly for schoolchildren” explains Henri Baile.
The Department is currently carrying out all the necessary expertise (concrete and steel analyses, asbestos diagnosis, etc.) to assess as accurately as possible the extent of the damage to the bridge. The community of communes Le Grésivaudan, the Department and the SMMAG advocate the use of existing carpooling services, soft modes, whenever possible, and are working on the implementation of more permanent ones, if the bridge were to remain closed over the long term. The Grésivaudan, the Department and the SMMAG are also thinking about setting up a secure bank crossing for soft traffic modes. This could be done on the Brignoud bridge, depending on the results of the studies in progress, which are expected at the end of the week.
For the bridge, all options are on the table
The department’s teams are hard at work and are continuing the analyses. “We have to carry out very in-depth expert appraisals, after which we will know if we should repair the bridge, or demolish it and then rebuild it. We have opened up all possible fields: repair, perhaps with an opening in degraded mode for only the pedestrian and cyclist traffic, with the aim of facilitating public transport circuits, and then perhaps more long-term repairs, the opening of a pedestrian bridge, or the demolition and reconstruction of the bridge, either in situated, either next tolists Bernard Perazio, vice-president for transport in the department of Isère. The expertise of the Ministry of the Armed Forces was also requested. “We wrote to the minister asking for the engineers to come and help us, and possibly for the reconstruction of the structure.”
What is certain, according to Bernard Perazio, is that “These repairs will take several weeks, even several months. The reconstruction of a new bridge can take up to 24 months.” Regular updates will be made to inform the population. “We will communicate in complete transparency on the solutions adopted. We may seek palliative solutions to allow the use of the bridge in degraded mode. Our goal and priority is to ensure the connection between these two shores of the Isère, a much used link”concludes Bernard Perazio