Fluorescent yellow jacket on, Bernard Frattesi and Francisco Lora get out of the patrol truck. The light panel on the roof of the vehicle is activated. The pair rushes to replace a missing traffic cone in a bend on the RD 975, towards Orange. This week, the two agents from the road maintenance and operation center (CEER) of Vaison-la-Romaine are on call and are traveling the departmental roads in the sector.
They check that there are no missing or damaged road signs, that there are no potholes in the road, fallen tree branches, deposited waste, etc. They also intervene in the event of accident, to secure the premises and set up diversions during the emergency response… “ Our mission is to come as quickly as possible and alleviate the emergency. We must ensure that users are calm. We are a bit like the guardian angels of the road », underlines Francisco Lora. He and his partner cover an average of 200 km per day during their patrols and fill out a logbook which records their interventions and observations. They can be called 24/7 during their on-call week. Thanks to this system, there are always agents on departmental roads, even on weekends and public holidays.
2,384 km of departmental roads in Vaucluse
The Department of Vaucluse fully assumes responsibility for “operation and maintenance of departmental roads”. To do this, it relies on four road agencies: Vaison-la-Romaine, Carpentras, L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and Pertuis. “ Each agency manages a defined territoryexplains Jean-Firmin Bardisa, head of the Vaison-la-Romaine road agency. Ours is responsible for the commune of Vaison and 41 communes of Haut-Vaucluse, the Enclave des Papes, the Rhône plain, the North of Ventoux… We are adjoining three departments: Gard, Drôme and Ardèche. »
