Toulouse. The northern urban boulevard at a complete standstill, Tisséo is relaunching an alternative transport project
By David Saint-Sernin
Published on
It was the only major public transport project north of toulouse.
Over a distance of 13 km, the northern urban boulevard (BUN) was to allow buses to run away from car traffic between Toulouse and Launaguet by 2025 then as far as Castelginest, Gratentour and Bruguières by 2030.
The project canceled in 2020
But in January 2020, after a long legal series, the Council of State had canceled the project.
The consequence of this judgment before the courts is that in 2022, a first short section of the BUN, carried out in 2016 during the creation of the Borderouge interchange, is accessible to buses, but this “highway for buses » stops abruptly at the junction with the Chemin de Virebent, a departmental road that leads to Launaguet from the Croix-Daurade district in Toulouse.
Buses must then return to general circulation. At peak times, they got stuck in the vehicle file. Bus lines 33 and 42 which use it automatically in attractiveness…
Tisséo relaunches a project
Two years after the cancellation of the BUN, Tisséo is therefore relaunching an alternative project. Exit the creation of a long ribbon of bitumen 13 kilometers long, the transport organizing authority now wants adapt the existing road network to the passage of buses.
A first section of a few hundred meters will be developed on the Chemin de Virebent. Tisséo acted on it on Wednesday April 13, 2022. “For us, this is the way to move forward despite the fact that the BUN has been arrested”, indicates Jean-Michel Lattes, the president of Tisséo.
Creation of a dedicated bus lane
“The development of the Chemin de Virebent consists of the creation of its own central two-way bus site between the boulevard Florence Artaud (the only part of the BUN is carried out, editor’s note) and the chemin d’Encourse in order to allow the bus to overcome traffic congestion. The proposed development is a continuation of the developments already carried out on the boulevards Florence Artaud and André Netwiller with the creation of the own bus site, which allows a rapid drop-off to Borderouge line B metro station »explains Tisséo.
The development of Chemin de Virebent will consist of creating a sidewalk with a dedicated lane for two-way buses and two traffic lanes for other vehicles. In total, a road that will be about twenty meters wide by a few hundred meters.
A project at 3.3 million euros
A project, produced at 3.3 million euros, which will be commissioned in September 2025 according to the schedule put forward by Tisséo.
A track cycling is already underway on the same section. It would be commissioned in June 2022.
An extension in reflection
Already, Tisséo is considering other developments in the same style towards Launaguet. In particular between the Chemin d’Encourse and the Triasis roundabout, which sees several thousand vehicles passing through each day.
“Available land companies do not allow the own bus site to be extended beyond Chemin d’Encourse. The extension of the development to the Triasis roundabout is feasible in the longer term. Technical studies on this extension will nevertheless be carried out from 2023, ”says Tisséo.
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