If you’ve been following the news closely, you might not have missed it, but the Toulouse-Castres (A69) project, a 53km motorway aimed at ‘opening up’ the south of Tarn, which has long been protected by select premises, was the subject of a large-scale demonstration at the end of April after work started in March 2023.

Argued loudly however, there are relatively few motorway projects in France, especially after the Grenelle de l’environnement some fifteen years ago. Since then, various governments have rejected projects more often than approved them.

The priority of the railway?

In fact, the last plan for a “big” highway was created twenty years ago. The Grenelle de l’environnement, held between 2007 and 2009, changed the situation and many projects failed, such as the A24 between Amiens and Lille, the extension of the A48 east of Lyon, the A51 in the Alps or the A831 in Charente-Maritime.

The few highway projects that have taken place since then have been rather low-key, while local opposition to construction sites grew. The government also promised a new infrastructure plan for the summer, but with priority declared to rail transport.

Several areas of contention

More or less federal, there are many objectionsgiving rise to many reasons: the protection of forest areas, the protection of fauna and flora, the fight against concrete and artificial earth formation, or the fear of pollution.

There are also many oppositions that fall under Nimbi (” not in my yard“, not in my yard). These are the people who compete for the project because it should come to them, but don’t mind it being implemented elsewhere.

Among our European neighbors, Wallonia and Wales have decided to halt their road projects. In other European countries, our policy is completely at odds with what we see in France, with highways that are being built at any costparticularly in Eastern Europe, while several projects were restarted in Germany, Spain and Italy.