After nine months of work, the ford of Saint-Ilpize was able to reopen. Since March 13, 2024, the teams of Department of Haute-Loire rehabilitated the structure, about twenty meters long. Victim of the floods at the beginning of 2024, he had been partially destroyed with the sagging of the deck and the appearance of a gaping hole, consequence of a section at the end side Villeneuve-d'Allier.
The incident prevented traffic on the axis, the only one accessible to 3.5 tonnes since the renovation of the Saint-Ilpize bridgewhich has become too weak to accommodate heavy goods vehicles.
After repair work,the ford should have been put back into service on October 21, eight months after the first floods. However, nature decided otherwise, because on October 18, again,flooding from Storm Leslie destroyed the work.
Jams made up of plants, tree trunks and an electric pole moved the metal deck on the Saint-Ilpize side. In Villeneuve-d’Allier, the road leading to the ford was destroyed.
Saint-Ilpize Ford: insufficient repairs in the face of a new flood?
While the repairs had just been completed, it is possible to question the effectiveness of the initial work in the event of new floods. “We honestly couldn't do betterdefends himself Michel Brun, vice-president of Haute-Loire, delegated to the road network, engineering structures and major road works. We could not have predicted such exceptional floods. We are still talking about thirty-year floods“.
The intervention to repair the new damage between October and November will have cost the Department nearly 200 000 euros. A regrettable investment for Michel Brun. “It would not be necessary if the Saint-Ilpize bridge were not fragile. The ford is a temporary solution that lasts…“According to his estimates, it would take nearly 2 million euros to restore the original bridge between Saint-Ilpize and Villeneuve-d'Allier.
For the Department of Haute-Loire, priority to the Langeac and Basse-en-Basset bridges
Considering the cost and other urgent projects, the bridge is not one of the priorities of Haute-Loire. “Compared to current finances, the tumults of the National Assembly and the government over the finance bill, I don't know how we can do it. We have two other major projects more expensive than the renovation of the Saint-Ilpize bridge. We know that one day we will have to take care of it, but it's always the same: we manage the urgent and the important and the non-urgent, the non-important, goes to the bottom of the list..”
These two other projects concern the takeover of the Langeac bridge for a sum of 13 million euros and that of Basse-en-Basset, first estimated at 19 million eurosbut reestimated at 24 million euros.
