The N18 tunnel between Delémont and Les Riedes, a 25-year-old mirage

“As it stands, this tunnel has very little chance of passing. We have to be honest.” On the other end of the line, federal parliamentarian Charles Juillard struggles to hide his pessimism.
It is in fact to him and the three other Jura representatives in Berne that will now fall the task of saving the famous underground bypass between Delémont and Les Riedes-Dessus, after the Federal Roads Office removed it from the plans of the Delémont-Basel road corridor. Plans which will be transmitted to the Federal Council.
“The result of the vote of November 24 on the extension of the motorways does not help us at all (editor's note: Jura is the canton of Switzerland to have most clearly refused the object. Only three municipalities said yes), continues the centrist. It is now much more complicated to sell such a project. We will have to let time pass a little and try to slip this tunnel into a future program.
“A heresy”
However, Ajoulot still says he is convinced that this variant represents the best solution, “even if it remains far from the usual profitability quotas”. For him, the urban tunnel planned instead, which would start from the entrance to Delémont and exit at Colliard, “is heresy”. Danger of flooding, problems with the Colliard nature reserve, he points out.
Elusive mirage
Still, we cannot escape this question: didn't the canton of Jura miss the boat much earlier? This road corridor has been discussed here for almost twenty-five years. For almost twenty-five years we have been dreaming of almost the same tunnel between the east of the city and Riedes-Dessus. And at a time when things are finally moving in the N18 file, this pharaonic work of art still resembles an elusive mirage, seen from Delémont.
The archives are striking: in 2002, there was already talk of reducing the journey between Delémont and Basel from 45 to 30 minutes as well as a tunnel “of 3.6 kilometers, estimated at 400 million, starting from the east of Courroux and ending between Soyhières and Liesberg”.
At the time, it was Pierre Kohler, sitting in David Eray's current seat, who carried the project. He is convinced: if his idea had been able to get past the parliamentary committee and be proposed to Parliament before his departure, “we would be finishing the work now. I had very good contacts with the federal officials of At the time, this project had a good chance of succeeding.” But the file was postponed for personal political reasons, believes the former Minister, “so that I could not complete it before leaving. I was very angry at the time.”