The Loire rises, the SNCF closes the flood gates for the safety of local residents

We see them under the railway embankment, along the Loire. Large metal gates which allow you to pass under the railway line which runs along the river, but they must be closed in case of risk of flooding. This is the case these days and SNCF Réseau agents are mobilized to close this equipment which is essential for the protection of the population.

Mounted on his ladder, the railway worker hits with his hammer to break down the joint between the heavy metal door and the wall. The SNCF Réseau team closed the flood gate, but it is also necessary to perfect the waterproofing of this population protection equipment.

Giant gates like this one, the SNCF manages 21 along the river, between Sainte-Luce-sur-Loire, in Loire-Atlantique, and Ingrandes-sur-Loire, in Maine-et-Loire. We see them under the railway embankment, which serves as a protective dike against the vagaries of the river.

A rise in the Loire is announced for the next few days. In Montjean-sur-Loire, reference position, the level was at 3.20 m this Thursday morning, 3.50 m are announced this Friday and 4 meters on Sunday. The alert has therefore been given: the doors must be closed.

It is up to the SNCF Réseau teams to manage the doors at floods. These maintenance teams, around 700 people throughout the Pays de la Loire region, are usually responsible for ensuring the good condition of the rails, the signaling, or the control of plants along the railway line. .

But it is also their responsibility, in the event of a risk of flooding, to close the metal doors under the railway tracks.

“Our objective is to continue rail traffic, explains Sylvain Galland, responsible for track maintenance in Pays de la Loire at SNCF Réseau. We have to keep the trains running, it’s our main job. Not closing the doors does not specifically affect rail traffic, however, our public service obligation is to close these doors.”

The safety of residents of the Loire is at stake, as the railway embankment protects against floods, although the flood gates must be closed in time. A manipulation which was carried out several times in 2024, a very wet year, and never in 2022, a drought year.

And to properly join these doors, we use an ancestral technique: hay woven by hand and coated with mud. The rope thus manufactured will be inserted with a hammer between the two doors and in the frame.

In the era of the seventh generation of TGVs, we have not yet done better!

►See the report by Fabienne Even, Boris Vioche and Julien Dadone Durand

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