Castres-Toulouse motorway: a journey for less than €7 and a barrier-free toll system
By Paul Halbedel
Published on
updated on 21 Apr 22 at 18:33
Saturday April 16, 2022, the public works group New Generation of Entrepreneurs (NGE) signed the final concession contract for theA69 motorway which will restore Castres a Toulouse. The decree was published three days later, Tuesday April 19, 2022, in the Official Journal.
It was on the same day that the representatives of the concessionaire went to Villefranche-de-Lauragais to present the main lines of this project to the elected officials of the community of communes. Lands of Lauragais whose northern territory is affected by the passage of the road infrastructure.
53 km including 45 km of new sections
General Manager ofAtoscathe company created by NGE and its partners to assume the concession for the A69 motorway, Martial Gerlinger clarified several elements during his presentation.
“We will be concessionaires on the 53 kilometers of route between Verfeil and Castres. There will be 45 km of new sections and 9 kilometers of existing sections, at the deviations of Puylaurens and Soual.”
If they will resume “almost as is”, the already existing portions will however be the subject of some rearrangements to stick to the template of those newly created.
“Studies have been granted since 2019, allowing us to go further in optimizing the route for reduce the consumption of agricultural land. This will be of 300 hectares instead of 360 hectares provided by the studies”, also indicated Martial Gerlinger.
The dealer announces a price of less than 7 €
The CEO of Atosca then specified that the financial participation in the project of the various communities will be greatly reduced compared to that which was initially planned. “We are going to reduce the balance subsidy by ten without penalizing the user”he announced.
Before saying a little more about the amount that motorists will have to pay to connect Castres to Verfeil :
“We will have a price which will be within the limit of that indicated in the DUP (Declaration of public utility, editor’s note). It is a question of 7 € for a light vehicle but we will even be lower than this price. We will be more precise on this point very soon.”
Discounts of up to 70%
The concessionaire’s representative also stressed his desire to set up a “subscription policy aimed at promoting local traffic”with some reductions ranging from 30 to 70% for people using the route for professional or home-to-work journeys.
A reduced rate of 70% will also be granted to low-emission vehicles. An incentive pricing policy that is part of a series of actions and developments (carpooling areas, installation of fast charging stations for electric vehicles, etc.) proposed by Atosca to make the A69, “the highway of sustainable mobility”.
Gates rather than toll gates
Martial Gerlinger also highlighted thetravel time optimization which will be made possible by the establishment of a “free-flow toll system without stopping vehicles ». Before detailing this device:
“There will be no barriers for the toll but gantries at the level of the four paying sections which automatically detect vehicles as they pass. This detection will be done via the electronic toll badge or for those who do not have one. by scanning the license plate with the possibility of then paying on the Internet or in cash in certain places. This is a system still little known in France but which exists in many countries such as Portugal. This allows a faster and more comfortable passage tolls and above all a saving of time since there are no more stops. […] We want a highway favorable to the user and the environment.”
Objective: end of works in the second half of 2025
Finally, the representatives of the concessionaire of the future A69 motorway discussed the timetable for the operation. “We hope to obtain the environmental authorization at the beginning of 2023 in order to be able to start the work at that time”, indicated Martial Gerlinger, while acknowledging a “tight planning”.
NGE is therefore considering commissioning this new infrastructure at second half of 2028.
“It’s not Castres – Toulouse, it’s Castres – Lourdes!”
At the end of this presentation, a discussion took place with the elected officials. And unsurprisingly, the departmental councilor Gilbert Hébrard, former mayor of Vendine, did not fail to share his remarks with the representatives of NGE: “I met at this highway because it is oversized, it is a disaster environment and many other things… But I notice that it’s no longer the Castres-Toulouse motorway, but the Castres-Lourdes motorway, so many miracles!save agricultural land, you reduce costs by ten […] We had made a counter-proposal that will allow you to put 80 hectares of agricultural land under tar when you are going to put almost 400. But this was rejected without even being studied because it is a file that has become very political . We will always have it in our throats.” Also present in the room, Benoît Serre, his successor at the head of the town hall of Vendine, also questioned the concessionaire. “We are already in a floodplain area, this highway will cause the water to rise even more during periods of rain. Should I plan to equip my constituents with boats?” The representatives of the concessionaire tried to reassure the elected official: “We rely on very advanced modeling. We will not aggravate the situation and we will compensate for all the expansion volumes of the floods, i.e. approximately 300,000 m3 over about twenty kilometres.
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