The Vinci-Bouygues consortium is claiming 971 million euros from the Réunion Region. In the form of additional costs and unpaid amounts for the work on the already built part of the New Coastal Road. After the failure of two amicable procedures, it is up to the courts to decide.
Published on September 17, 2024 at 10:53 a.m.,
updated on September 17, 2024 at 12:40 p.m.
This Tuesday, September 17, the Réunion Region and the Vinci-Bouygues group, which carried out the work on the first part of the NRL already built, face each other before the administrative court of Réunion.
Experts and lawyers will oppose their figures and arguments to fix the amount of the claims, in the absence of an agreement reached between the parties so far. Two amicable procedures have already failed, so justice must decide.
The New Coastal Road has already cost the Region and the State 2.5 billion euros. However, the bill is expected to increase and could climb beyond 3 billion euros.
The companies that built the viaduct from Saint-Denis to Grande-Chaloupe are demanding an additional 971 million euros for unpaid bills and additional costs. For the Vinci-Bouygues consortium, this is to cover the “real” cost of the first part of the NRL.
This morning, the public rapporteur returned to the requests relating only to the dike on the Saint-Denis side. Work began in 2014 and for which the group is claiming 242 million euros, mainly to compensate for difficulties in supplying materials. This concerns the file of massive rocks that could not be extracted due to the lack of a quarry, and which were replaced by windrows.
According to Bouygues and Vinci, the Region has not measured the needs and possible recourses. “False” responds the community, for whom the supply is not contractualized.
The manufacturers have developed other grounds in their appeal. Some requests can also be surprising, especially when they involve a meteorological parameter, such as one million euros to compensate for the tilting of the Coastal Road and even 2 million euros because of the turbidity of the water which is slowing down the installation of the tetrapods.
The most financially burdensome part still remains to be addressed, namely the 675 million euros requested for the viaduct contract.
For the Réunion Region, these are extravagant sums, which it refuses to pay, denouncing the legacy left by the previous mandate, under the presidency of Didier Robert. The Project was transferred by the State to the Region in 2008, making the community the project owner.
The choice was made, in order to reduce the economic cost of the infrastructure, of a solution comprising dikes and a large viaduct. A choice which led to ” significant difficulties in managing the project, delays and inevitable additional costs “, estimated the Regional Chamber of Accounts in an observation report dated December 2022.
According to the CRC, ” the conclusion of the contracts on the dikes, at the end of 2013 and the end of 2014, should not have taken place without administrative access to the quarries having sufficient quantities and quality of massive rocks for the construction of the dikes having been better anticipated and prepared “.
In October 2021, the CESER of Réunion (the Regional Economic, Social and Environmental Council) recalled in a report on the construction site of the New Coastal Road, the multiple alerts launched to the Regional Council since 2006 regarding the uncertainties, the sustainability and the additional cost of maintenance of the future viaduct, or even on the supply of materials.
It is now up to the administrative court to decide and determine the amount of the claims. A sum to which must be added the 820,000 million euros planned, for the moment, for the second viaduct to be built between Grande-Chaloupe and La Possession.
The New Coastal Road, 12.3 km long, will then break all records in terms of costs and additional costs.