Canal du Midi: major works to renovate the banks in Toulouse
Repair work on the banks of the Canal du Midi will lead to its temporary closure, in less than a year. The construction of the 3rd metro line will also have a real impact on navigation.
Navigation on the Canal du Midi will be disrupted for 5 months, throughout 2023: 3 months at the start of the year for bank repair work, and 2 months at the end of the year, for preparations for the construction site of the 3rd metro line.
This last project should even lead to the cessation of navigation, over other periods, in the following years.
Five months of closure of navigation in total in 2023
Five months of closure in 2023 is too much for the “Toulouse au Fil de l’eau” association, which alerted the communities to try to consolidate the work, at the end of 2023. not selected Toulouse Métropole, prime contractor for the riverbank renovation project.
“We regret the lack of coordination between the various players in the upcoming projects, because in the end, it is the entire navigation on the canal that will suffer, and not only for the Toulouse players, explains Pierre Cardinale, door – word of the association. We are neither against repair work on the banks, nor against the future 3rd metro line. But we ask that these works be grouped together, to reduce the inconvenience to navigation. »
A floating pontoon 9.50 m wide to support a 50 ton crane
Toulouse Métropole and VNF have decided to intervene on the banks of the canal, which are dangerously sagging, particularly at Boulevard de la Méditerrannée, in Toulouse. On more than 300 meters, collapses of this bank jeopardize the safety of the road system and its users, of the pedestrian path and the integrity of the storm drainage works.
Sheet piles, large piles planted reinforced in the canal and connected to each other, make it possible to retain the bank, to prevent it from collapsing.
Given the intense traffic on the boulevard – 20,000 vehicles per day – and the limited land area available, the city decided to install these sheet piles from a pontoon floating on the Canal du Midi.
This 9.50 m wide floating pontoon will be necessary to support the weight of a 50 ton crane. This large-scale project, which will require the temporary closure, at night, of traffic on Boulevard de la Méditerranée, will take place between January and March 2023.
“The work schedule has been studied with the VNF services in order to have a minimum impact on navigation, observes the Métropole. The period from January to March 2023 is the one that is least penal to navigation”.