the department blocks work on a portion of the A69

The Haute-Garonne department did not sign the documents necessary to launch work on a portion of the A69 motorway on Monday November 25. Departmental 20, which bypasses Verfeil, was to close for nine months in order to be redeveloped. The community is suspended from the decision of the Administrative Court determining the future of the highway project.

The new work in the Verfeil sector (Haute-Garonne), still linked to the development of the controversial A69 motorway, was due to begin on November 25, 2024. The Departmental 20which bypasses the town, over a distance of 1.5 km, was to be closed to traffic for 9 months, in order to become a section of the future highway. But the Haute-Garonne Departmental Council blocked everything.

The community does not want to sign the necessary orders closure for demolition of the RD20 from Atosca, the A69 concessionaire, before the start of December.

Because on November 20, the Public Rapporteur submitted his report requesting the cancellation of the environmental authorization for the A69 for the absence of a compelling reason of major public interest. Will the Toulouse administrative court decide to follow this advisory opinion? The answer is expected on December 9.

In a press release sent to France 3 Occitanie, the Departmental Council specifies: “The community thus intends preserve the public departmental road domain in the absence of certainty on the completion of the planned worksand so as not to unnecessarily burden the population of Verfeil with road traffic constraints linked to the establishment of a detour, the duration of which is not currently controlled.”

Something to delight opponents of the A69. Alain Hébrard, member of the La Voie Est Libre collective assures that it is “one of the many collateral effects of this latest report. There is awareness among elected officials. And this shows that all cancellation procedures are not exhausted, contrary to what our adversaries like to claim.“.

The retired doctor concedes that he “did not expect that work on this portion would be suspended. We hope that it will go from provisional to permanent.“Work which would lead to a diversion of road traffic in the town of Verfeil until next August.”It was going to be horror for a lot of people.”

Patrick Plicque, mayor of Verfeil, had no say in the suspension of this work. “We had prepared for many vehicles to cross the town for 9 months. We carried out work on the Puylaurens road, also at the gendarmerie roundabout. We also asked NGE-Atosca to place speed bumps.”

If work on the A69 were to stop after December 9, these developments would lose their meaning. Even if the municipality assumes having always been against the highway project before its start of construction, Patrick Plicque can only deplore it: “If the project stopped, what would we do with all these bridges, all these sections of road already built between Castres and Toulouse? Deep down I tell myself that it's still a shame to have waited all these months, all these years to get to this. Stopping the construction site in the middle is a shame.”

An uncertainty which is enough to worry the professionals engaged on the site, but also the business leaders in the sector. Guy Bousquet and those. The president of the Via 81 association deplores: “Today, the A69 is legal harassment which must stop so that we can work peacefully. I am moved and a little angry because this means twelve or thirteen appeals lost. And this one can change everything“.

The Way is Free, for its part, does not rule out a possible demonstration next December 9, the day of the court decision. “Everything will depend on the conditions under which the decision will be rendered. If there is an audience, we will undoubtedly mobilize, we will think about it.” concludes Alain Hébrard.