Le Figaro Bordeaux
To discover
Follow all the news of the city of Bordeaux
How to relieve traffic on Highway 63 between Bordeaux and Arcachon?
This is the thorny problem with which the services of the State rub up.
One track envisaged is the development into 2x3 lanes, which would go through a concession and therefore a toll between Bordeaux and the Arcachon basin.
An idea that provokes a real outcry among residents and local elected officials.
Until April 30, a consultation is carried out by the State services to choose between three development scenarios.
The first consists of doing nothing, the second foresees the complete development of the A63 up to the intersection between the A660 in the direction of Arcachon and the A63 in the direction of Spain, through a concession.
A third solution consists of a partial development: the part of the A63 located south of Bordeaux would be put into 2x3 lanes and the rest of the infrastructure would not be modified.
Read alsoGironde: discover the roads most monitored by “unmarked radar cars”, which track speeding
The second solution, costing 290 million euros, is the most contested because it would involve the introduction of a toll and should only allow a time saving of five to ten minutes per journey.
The third possibility would make it possible to save two to four minutes of travel without the creation of a toll, for a cost more than six times lower (54.5 million euros).
But this sum would be borne by the State and therefore borne by taxpayers.
Between 55 and 60 euros of toll per month
Among the 80,000 to 90,000 vehicles using the portion of the A63 south of Bordeaux every day, 17% are heavy goods vehicles.
During peak hours and on summer weekends, travel time is almost tripled and the level of accidents on this axis is on average eight times higher than national benchmarks.
"
We want to make citizens pay for a problem that is not caused by the daily use of the road by workers but by this international traffic that poisons us
", deplores Karine Desmoulin, the mayor of Teich, a municipality in the basin of Arcachon where one of the two tolls would be installed.
She herself regularly uses this section of the road to go to the county council.
Read alsoGironde: the number of fatal accidents on the road at its highest for ten years
"
What puts the elected officials up is that it is still the taxpayer and the inhabitants of the territory who will have to pay
".
The estimated monthly cost of this motorway toll for daily users would be between 55 and 60 euros, specifies the elected official.
"
For families who fled from Bordeaux and the metropolis because they no longer had the means to stay in the city center, this is a huge additional cost
", regrets Karine Desmoulin.
The city councilor also points to other risks, such as the deportation of traffic to secondary axes.
“
There are so many collateral effects that this toll story is really not an option for us.
»
“Anything you want, but no tolls”
The Teichoise councilor is also at the origin of a petition addressed to Clément Beaune, Minister of Transport, signed by more than 30,000 people, opposing the toll project.
She confides that the purpose of this petition is “
that the inhabitants of the territory can express themselves
” and she also invites them to participate in the consultation until April 30.
The comments left within the framework of this consultation by the users of the A63 are mostly of the same opinion.
"
Residents should not have to pay to go to work
," said a driver.
“
A toll?
What next ?
The day's work will cost me rather than bring me in
,” another is offended.
“
I don't see myself paying to take an axis that my taxes have paid for
”, explains another user.
“
Anything you want but no toll
,” sweeps another.
“
The introduction of a toll would be catastrophic for the local road network with a deportation of motorists to the secondary road network which is not suitable.
»
Read alsoMobility in Bordeaux: for MP Thomas Cazenave, the metropolis is “at the end of a cycle”
If the president of Bordeaux Métropole, Alain Anziani, does not wish to react at this stage of the consultation on the A63, judging that the project is not sufficiently "
mature
", the metropolitan council adopted in March 2021 a unfavorable opinion on the second scenario.
“
Bordeaux Métropole opposes that the inhabitants of the metropolis and beyond the Girondins, are put to contribution to move, which excludes the payment of a toll on this route for the Girondins.
»
"
Upgrading to 2x3 lanes responds to technical consistency but is not a necessity for metropolitan traffic and daily exchanges with the Girondin territories, the difficulties being increased during weekend and summer traffic", underline the elected officials
.
"
In the event that upgrading to 2x3 lanes is retained, it is imperative that this additional lane be built without increasing the current land area and that the new lane be exclusively reserved for public transport and vehicles with a high rate of occupation.
»
