Castres-Toulouse motorway. The Environmental Authority recalls the project, the concessionaire responds
By Maxence Dourlen
Published on
L’environmental authorityadvisory body called upon to analyze the quality of
the project impact study, a report Thursday, October 6, 2022 its recommendations on
projecthighway Between Castres and Toulouse (A69). A project rejected by the organization which still notes “many shortcomings with regard to health impacts,
energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
“In general, this road project, initiated several decades ago, appears anachronistic in view of the current challenges and ambitions of sobriety, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, stopping the erosion of biodiversity and the artificialization of the territory and the evolution of mobility practices and their links with regional development. The justification of imperative reasons of major public interest of the project with regard to its effects on natural environments appears limited. »
“Outdated assumptions”
Already, at the end of September, the National Council for the Protection of Nature also presented a revealing opinion on this controversial project. Several arguments put forward against the creation of this highway are thus shared by the Environmental Authority. “The socio-economic analysis, of which only a summary is presented, does not seem to have been updated: it is based on traffic data and pollutant emission hypotheses that are now obsolete,” she explains. “The traffic study was partially, but its updated results were not included in the impact study, in particular for the evaluation of time savings and emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases emissions, still requested on vehicle emission factors declared by the manufacturers before the affair of the falsified emissions of diesel vehicles and not on real emissions data. »
the recommendations of the Environmental Authority
The Environmental Authority mainly recommends:
• Resume traffic modeling using a model to take into account non-road modes of transport,
• To update the chapter dealing with the variants in order to take into account the national objectives relating to the energy transition and the absence of net artificialisation, and to check whether the chosen choice remains relevant,
• To calculate and update emissions during commissioning and in the long term, and to base the health risk assessment on the most recent World Health Organization guide values,
• To reconsider the avoidance, reduction and compensation measures proposed for one of the objectives of no net loss of biodiversity and no net artificialisation.
Atosca, the dealer “will respond to recommendations”
Somewhat reprimanded by these various advisory opinions, Atoscathe concessionaire in charge of the project has affirmed its desire to “ comply with the recommendations of the Environmental Authority “.
Atosca recalls that a team of one forty engineers, technicians and ecologists one already produced a file of more than 9000 pages which has been authorized to the Environmental Authority to issue this notice. Study work which will soon be deepened to confirm the solutions proposed to the territories. The dealer adds that many responses have been canceled over the past few years. “Strong and concrete responses to the integration of the project into its environment”:
• The opening of temporary careers is no longer necessary following in-depth studies;
• Thanks to the innovative Free Flow technology and the route optimization work, 80 hectares of land have been preserved, including 50 agricultural hectares;
• Thanks to a detailed fauna/flora inventory carried out in 2019 and 2020, 4 areas with major ecological challenges have been removed;
• A third of the planned buildings are no longer concerned today
through land acquisitions;
• 200 engineering structures will be created to guarantee the hydraulic transparency of
highway and wildlife crossing;
• Aware of the challenges of ecological and energy transition, ATOSCA is committed to solving the decarbonization of mobility by installing carpooling areas, 16 electric charging stations and an attractive pricing policy for vehicles with very low fuel consumption. greenhouse gas emissions;
• The restoration of highly degraded wetlands and afforestation allows significant carbon capture in the plains of Girou and Bernazobre.
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