“Hello, a little signature for the petition and the Tavant-Île-Bouchard bridge?”. On the L’Île-Bouchard bridge, almost all motorists accept and sign. Inhabitants of Bouchardais, truck drivers or farmers, all hope for the creation of a diversion from the town and neighboring village of Tavant. Twenty members of the Collectif citoyen des Deux Rives, created this weekend, mobilized this Thursday afternoon in a filtering barrage operation.
360 heavy goods vehicles in L’Île-Bouchard and Tavant on a daily basis
A mobilization, supported by local elected officials, to denounce the inaction in this file that is more than forty years old! Since the 1970s, there has been talk of this deviation from the D760, to unload the towns of L’Île-Bouchard and Tavant. But nothing is done yet. The collective therefore launched a petition, which in three days reached more than 1,300 signatures online and on paper (877 during the barrage and more than 500 online).
“It’s getting really hellish. Every time a truck passes, my house shakes. We’ve already changed the kitchen tiles twice because it’s cracking. The frames we hang fall”, describes Sophie, a resident of Tavant. The village of less than 300 souls is crossed by the busy departmental road. About 360 heavy goods vehicles pass through it every day. Not to mention cars, school buses and agricultural machinery.
– Chloe Martin
dangerous traffic
“When I drive around with an agricultural harvester, you have to block each entrance to the town and make an exceptional convoy. You don’t pass two in the street”, testifies Baptiste Dupin, cereal farmer based in Tavant. Despite the narrowness of the road, he was forced to travel regularly to the other side of the Vienne and had no choice but to cross the town center of L’Île-Bouchard. “At each end of the bridges, there is a gentle slope. With trailers, it’s also dangerous.”
– Chloe Martin
In Bouchardais, everyone remembers the truck that overturned its straw bales in the middle of the bridge in 2016, cutting off traffic. “Three minutes before, there were children crossing”, remembers the farmer. Fortunately, there is never had fatal accidents. “We are not immune to it. There are still primary schools on the island. Children go out at the same peak hours as heavy goods vehicles. A child should not escape the vigilance of his parents”, points out Anne Fagu, operator in Sazilly and at the origin of the collective and the petition.
Pending a decision from the prefect of Indre-et-Loire
Not to mention the dilapidated bridges, not originally designed for such traffic. “The day when the bridge will be prohibited for heavy goods vehicles without there being any deviation, that will be a problem”, believes Baptiste Dupin. Île-Bouchard is indeed at the crossroads of Tours, Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine, Chinon and Loches.
– Chloe Martin
“We’ve been told about this project for forty years, a lot of taxpayers’ money has been invested in it, some work has already begun. We want it to finally happen!”, summarizes Hervé Desbourdes, winemaker based in Panzoult. The members of the collective now hope for a response from the prefect of Indre-et-Loire, so that the case is finally settled.