The bridge over the Loire provided for in the Jargeau (Loiret) diversion project has crossed an obstacle.
The administrative court of Orleans dismissed Thursday the association Mardiéval and France Nature Environnement (FNE), which denounce the sacking of a very rich natural area.
Seized on a decree which derogates from the protection of species, the administrative judge above all reaffirmed the major public interest of this road, which bypasses Orleans from the east.
This axis will avoid "a traffic of 15,000 vehicles per day in the cities currently crossed", insists Marc Gaudet, president of the departmental council of Loiret, financier of this 80 million euro project.
Free Jargeau and Saint-Denis-de-Hôtel
On the ground, the machines had already started clearing the banks of the wild river in 2019, under the protection of a squadron of mobile gendarmes.
Then the site had stopped, the time to "purge the appeals", specified Marc Gaudet a few weeks before the hearing.
After this 16th appeal extinguished, the departmental council hopes to resume work by the end of the year.
The stated objective: liberate the town centers of Jargeau and Saint-Denis-de-Hôtel, on both sides of the river.
“These are traffic jams that cost motorists only five minutes during rush hour.
We could already try the staggered hours in companies in the sector to reduce them, ”argues Jean-Marie Salomon, president of Mardiéval.
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Unsuccessful, Mardiéval and FNE still savor a small victory.
The judge imposes to order an additional impact study, because the previous one had been entrusted by the prefect to a prefectural service, in this case the Dreal.
The prefect will therefore have to order a new one from the independent Environmental Authority, as now required by European law.
This should take into account a report made in the meantime: the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM) estimated at the end of 2017 that the soils were unstable.
In other words, there is a risk of the bridge collapsing.
However, even if the EA leans in their favor, its opinions are not binding, deplore the associations.
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They want to appeal to the Administrative Court of Appeal of Nantes, accompanied by a new lawyer, Me Maginot. It was this Bordeaux lawyer who forced the Dordogne departmental council to deconstruct the piles of the Beynac bypass bridge. "In Beynac, the Council of State agreed with the defenders of the environment with 85 protected species, we have already counted 112", compares Jean-Marie Salomon, who hopes to obtain the same result.
