Since September, there have been no tenants in the 226 apartments of the Ader Towers. The 17 floors sound decidedly hollow but not for much longer since next year they will no longer exist. It has been five years since the Résidences Yvelines Essonne (LRYE) planned their destruction. At the time, Arnaud Legros, the chairman of the board, declared that “keeping them as is was impossible”. Comments confirmed by Pierre Bédier during a press conference on November 29 at the premises of the social landlord. “There were a certain number of functional defects,” explains the president of the Department. Like not enough elevators or poorly heated accommodation. » Indeed, the lifting stations were undersized to uniformly heat the towers.
It took three and a half years to rehouse the 170 households that remained in 2019. Around a hundred are still in Mantes-la-Jolie, including 78 in Val-Fourré. “During public meetings, many did not want to leave the neighborhood because it represents their whole life. And if they could go to the neighboring tower, they did so without hesitation,” explains Cynthia Laroche-Limery, operations manager at LRYE. In addition, 41 households left the Mantaise city and two changed departments. For those who remained within the scope of LRYE's actions, the social landlord had to respect the rehousing charter, that is to say the same price per m² with financing for the move and installation costs.
It is the Melchiorre company which will take care of the destruction. First, the workers will remove the carpets, the windows and then the asbestos insulation. To do this, around sixty operators, similar to cosmonauts, will confine the entire building before removing the asbestos. Then the Liebherr R9150 will come into play. It will take nine trucks in an exceptional convoy and three others in a classic convoy to move the largest machine in Europe, which weighs more than 300 tonnes. Its lifting crane can reach a height of up to 70 m (the Ader towers measure 47) with a concrete shear at the end delivering a pressure of two tonnes.
Each blow will reduce several sections of personal history and its associated memories to dust. In four months, the two buildings will be left with “only” 27,000 tonnes of concrete scattered in rubble, with Melchiorre SA wanting to recycle 98% of it. “It’s a project that is very similar to the one we did in Massy with a thirteen-story tower,” says Jean-Nicolas Melchiorre, the manager. We also had to manage the entry and exit of trucks with a traffic lane located nearby. » Concerning the security of the site, this is intended to be reassuring: video surveillance camera, padlocked security gate for so-called sensitive sites (ie asbestos removal). “Destruction sites are of little interest to thieves,” he asserts. In December 2025, there is supposed to be nothing left except a clear space whose land will be transferred to the Grand Paris Seine et Oise urban community.
This demolition of the Ader towers marks the resumption of a first cycle begun in 1992 and which has already seen 13 towers demolished throughout Val-Fourré. “When the program began, the population of Val-Fourré represented two-thirds of the city,” recalls Pierre Bédier. Their demolitions therefore allowed a general rebalancing in the city's neighborhoods. » The president of the Department also recalls that many were a symbol of “bad living”. Because in addition to the problems mentioned at the Ader towers – heating problem, elevator problem, etc. – others were added such as delinquency. “When we moved the hospital, the nurses had their purses taken from them at red lights so they no longer stopped there,” adds the former mayor of Mantes-la-Jolie. Even the police and firefighters were stoned when they intervened. »
These destructions made it possible to bring social diversity. For example, the Broca and Ramon towers have become places of co-ownership, thus reducing the share of social housing in Val-Fourré. The strong man from Yvelines notes that demolitions must be accompanied by a global strategic vision, sometimes going beyond the framework of the Mantaise conurbation: “We cannot solve the problems of Val-Fourré only by looking at the Val-Fourré” he insists. As an example, Pierre Bédier mentions the various constructions carried out elsewhere such as the ZAC des Bords de Seine or Place Henri Dunand. And above all to bring attractiveness: “This is why I fought vigorously so that the CAF and Health Insurance did not leave this district and why we built a few activity zones. »
Above all, the gradual reorganization of the “VF” made it possible to establish a bond of trust between the population and those responsible for the work. The president of the Department then recalls the first neighborhood meetings where the residents told him point blank “we don’t believe you”. “We have gained credibility because we know how to follow a strategy. Studies are good, but then you have to get down to business,” he warns.
At the same time, LRYE also planned the renovation of the physicists and aviators quarter. The first – which concerns six buildings – has already started in summer 2023 and should end in summer 2025 while the second will begin in the third quarter of 2025 with a deadline of the third quarter of 2027. These two renovations will allow several energy gains thanks to thermal insulation of buildings (facade, roof, shutter). These will move from label D to label B, which will help reduce tenants' charges by around a hundred euros per year. 53,000 euros of work per accommodation for physicists and 34,100 euros for aviators were necessary to achieve this. Slowly but surely, Val-Fourré is being transformed for a better future.
