“From 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., the cars are bumper to bumper, I have the impression that the Paris ring road is at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port“. From the window of his office, Laurent Inchauspe, the mayor, attends the same ball every day. According to a recent study, there are 12,000 vehicles passing through the departmental road in the heart of the village, double in summer. Something to alert the city councilor who wants to advance the thorny issue of the deviation of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port.
What route? What budget?
The deviation of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port has been in the cards for several decades, without ever having been implemented, for lack of being able to find a solution that manages to satisfy all the municipalities. Except that now, concern is mounting for the mayor of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port elected in 2020: “In two years, there have been five accidents on this lane at the cemetery bend, with one that could have caused real human damage.“But the mayor is also worried about consequences what it may have in the future. “If this road is blocked, it will be very difficult for the emergency services to access a house which can burn or a serious accident..”
There is a real emergency, warns Mayor Laurent Inchauspe
With the other mayors of the Garazi Baigorri pole, they had written a letter to ask the department to study the avenues of diversion of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and to be able to discuss them. A steering committee met in May last year. Nothing since.
Study on origins – destinations
For its part, the department, via its adviser delegated to this dossier, Philippe Echeverria, explains that a origin-destination study will take place in the fall. “It will make it possible to know where motorists who pass through the town center are going, and where they are coming from,” he explains. From of the results of this study, he intends to bring the mayors together again to talk to them about it, being well aware “that all elected officials do not agree”, and that “unanimity” is needed on this file. But “no deadline” for the moment. This diversion from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port will not come out of the ground right away.