At the Grand Est district council, at the end of November, the mayor of Antibes Jean Leonetti rolled out the anti-flood plan supposed to protect the Val Claret district and its real estate project consisting of 173 housing units, including 67 social rentals and 17 for social accession ( our edition of 23 October 2021).
“The Sophia Antipolis urban community (Casa) will double the collector in order to ensure the evacuation of a medium to heavy flood and the drainage of the neighborhood in the event of accidental obstruction of the current network”explained the presentation slideshow.
Project far from easy, because to carry out this project, it will be necessary to drill a passage under the SNCF rails running along the neighborhood to allow the water to be evacuated into the sea. Which, just for the tunnel, siphon off 40% of the 4.5 million euros allocated to the project, which is due to start in April 2025.
Longer and more difficult
Presentation finished? This was without taking into account a question that was burning on the lips of local residents: knowing the progress of the connection which should largely be reserved for pedestrians and cyclists under the railway line.
This will facilitate access to the seaside, to Fort Carré and the city center.
The councilor then insisted on procrastinating, preferring not to bring forward the date on an even more difficult and financially demanding project, costing around ten million euros of investment: “Putting humans under rails is not the same as carrying water under them. It requires extremely strict standards and tedious studies.” Worse, the SNCF had forced the City to postpone its schedule by three to five years to carry out the said studies.
In any case, the project is not dead, Jean Leonetti reassured.
On the contrary, “I think we will have to see it through to the end”he said a few weeks later.
This passage was indeed carefully considered behind the scenes: “We had initially considered making a double lane for cars, but faced with the significant risks of congestion, the situation was rectified and it will ultimately be a single passage for vehicles, and the majority of the space for pedestrians and bicycles.
To finish all these projects – housing, garden, rainwater collector – on time and above all at the same time, the City intends to take advantage of the temporary blocking of the site linked to archaeological excavations (read opposite) to coordinate its action until 2027.
