Salazie: reopening of the road, residents demand an emergency steering committee

After a landslide that occurred in the place called “l’Evêque” in Salazie, the RD48 Route de Salazie was completely closed to traffic during the night of Thursday May 9 to Friday May 10, 2024.

This closure took place while the second edition of the Arléo festival is being held in Salazie until Sunday May 12.

The road reopened this Friday morning at 9 a.m. The residents of the circus express their anger and demand the urgent holding of a steering committee with the Department.

Once again, the Salaziens found themselves cut off from the rest of Reunion Island, particularly during this school holiday period.

The inhabitants of Salazie are sounding the alarm. On several occasions, landslides have already occurred on the RD48, the road linking the cirque to Saint-André. And it’s been almost two years since “Salazians live to the rhythm of work on Departmental Road 48 which still bears the scars of the purges and landslides that result from it”protests the Nout’Gayar Salazie Collective in a press release.

According to local residents, “the purges at a place called PR+8 have worsened the management of our road”.

Today, we are asking that road repair work with tarmac be carried out on the PR+6 and PR+8 portion so that we can find a road worthy of the name and in complete safety as well as a road management protocol. operational scree.

Cindy Barbe Robert, spokesperson for the Collectif Nout’ Gayar Salazie

For the citizen collective, an emergency steering committee must be set up, “as quickly as possible in order to manage this alarming situation.”

As a reminder, in December 2022, the road was also closed following a landslide. In April 2022, an impressive boulder landed on the roadway.