Major work has started since the end of April around Place Morard. They will last until the summer of 2025 in order to install the future high-level of service bus.
“This place was designed in the 1970s when the spirit was focused on all cars. Tomorrow, thanks to the work for the high-level service bus, we will give space back to pedestrians and bicycles while reworking the banks with more pleasant views.” This is how Guillaume Bonnet, vice-president of Chartres Métropole in charge of major travel infrastructures, summarizes the work started a week ago, around Place Morard with the aim of installing infrastructure for high-speed buses. level of service (BHNS).
Discover the images of the future developments planned in Chartres for the high level of service bus line
The traffic lights have already been removed and a roundabout has been temporarily installed before it becomes permanent at the end of the work, scheduled for summer 2025. “Traffic will be maintained for the duration of the work,” says Guillaume Bonnet. We can already see that we lose less time at this intersection by having removed the lights.” Only part of rue Saint-Brice will be closed to traffic for part of the summer to “improve the intersection with boulevards de la Courtille and Chasles”, also with the end of the traffic lights. On Boulevard de la Courtille, green islands will be installed in the center of the lanes at the pedestrian crossings. This work will last from September 2024 until May 2025. Traffic will not be closed because “the work will be carried out in phases on a single portion of the roadway”, indicates the vice-president in charge of major travel infrastructure.
Ultimately, the entrance to rue Saint-Barthélemy will be shifted and users will take it from rue d’Ablis and no longer from the Place Morard crossroads. The current parking lot on the square at the exit of rue de la Porte Morard will be moved in January 2025 to the other side of boulevard Clémenceau, near the buildings under construction. Rue de la Porte Morard is already blocked off for vehicles and will remain so at the end of the work.
Stands installed on the banks of the EureView of the future developments of Place Morard from rue de la Porte Morard: creation of terraces instead of an impassable bank and creation of large pedestrian spaces.
Stands will be installed along the banks of the Eure to “highlight the Petit and Grand Bouillon as well as the historic entrance to the town of Porte Morard”. The banks will also be reworked “after archaeological excavations”. The end of the work and its accessibility are planned between September 2024 and January 2025. Around the square, pedestrians and cyclists will have more room to circulate with “a 5 meter wide path where cohabitation will be secure”. A corbel facing the Château d’If will be installed to widen the sidewalk at the level of the bridge towards Boulevard de la Courtille.View of the future developments from the center of the Place Morard crossroads, towards Avenue Jean-Mermoz: large bus station with two passenger shelters and pedestrian space at the exit from Porte Morard (Bastion) (@PAUME – Air Studio ).
If the primary objective of this work is to install the infrastructure allowing the circulation of BRTs and their stops, it will, according to Guillaume Bonnet, “make traffic flow more fluid. Without the traffic lights, we know that the motorist will experience less waiting.” In this sector with an area of approximately 1.6 ha, the square will be completely redesigned with a bastion, a sort of raised projection and “more vegetation at the level of the old city walls. This will enhance and make this entrance to the city more pleasant. Over the entire works for the BRT, more trees will be planted than removed,” estimates Guillaume Bonnet.
Discovering the “Château d’If” on the banks of the Eure, in Chartres
View of the future developments from the center of the Place Morard crossroads, with a large bus station and two passenger shelters and a pedestrian area at the end of the Morard gate (Bastion) (@PAUME – Air Studio).
Another project is underway, for the installation of the BRT, in the Place Jeanne-d’Arc area. The work began on April 22 and will end at the end of June. “The right-of-way of the current lanes will be reduced from three to two lanes.” Then it will be the tour of rue du Général-Patton, in sections, between next October and the summer of 2025.
Chartres: faster buses in a remodeled city
Thomas Desprez
