The 2013 decree
We also learn that among the 74 areas which are not the subject of a concession, 60 do not have sanitary facilities. “And at least fifteen do not even offer basic infrastructure such as picnic areas, thus compromising the essential health, convenience and security needs of users.explains the former minister. The Walloon government, through Sofico, is therefore not respecting the rules that it itself decreed a little over ten years ago. Valérie De Bue thus refers to “the 2013 decree of the Walloon government, which requires the presence of toilets for men and women in all motorway areas”.
However, with the establishment of a kilometer charge for heavy goods vehicles a few years ago, Sofico, which is 75% financed by this charge (320 million in 2023), did not see fit to build new facilities. on these areas without concessions. The head of the MR group is therefore surprised that road hauliers who pay the kilometer fee are not entitled to better quality infrastructure. And for those who have toilets, she is also surprised by the state of cleanliness of them.
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For Minister Desquesnes, “efforts have been made in recent years”. He explains that on “of the 74 non-concessioned areas, 13 areas are equipped with fixed toilets. The annual cost of maintenance – adding toilet paper, filling the disinfectant tank, etc. – and daily cleaning of a fixed toilet block in an unlicensed area with minimum passage once a day, amounts to +/- 35,000 euros excluding VAT”. Among these 13 sites, two are even equipped with self-cleaning toilets, for an annual maintenance budget of 26,000 euros excluding VAT. On the other hand, he deplores the visits “uncivil people who ruin efforts”in terms of cleanliness.
Permanent portable toilets
He also explains that he “There are three types of toilets installed: fixed toilets, permanently present mobile toilets and temporary mobile toilets.. We will go through the list of equipment rest area by rest area which the minister rewards the MP in his response, to conclude that today “oThere are 21 non-licensed sites permanently equipped with toilets. By adding the 33 concessioned areas, there are a total of 54 areas permanently equipped with toilets. To this figure are added from April 15 to October 15 temporary mobile toilets installed on 12 additional sites (budget of approximately 72,000 euros excluding VAT), therefore increasing the total number of equipped areas to 66 “. Despite all these encouraging responses, a simple calculation allows us to say that there are still 53 areas which are not permanently equipped. We are far from being compliant with the 2013 decree.
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And for the future, the minister specifies that he “Sofico is not currently considering equipping all areas with toilets, because the costs are quite significant and the current average distance between two sites equipped with toilets is only 36 km on the motorway network. This corresponds to a journey time of approximately 20 minutes.”
