The bill for the third metro line soared
This Thursday, near the Stade Ernest-Wallon, the construction site of the 3rd line of subway of Toulouse – now called C-line – will be officially launched giving the kick-off to major works, scattered in the agglomeration, along this axis of 27 kilometers, as much as lines A and B combined, between Labege and the Colomiers SNCF station.
An inaugural ribbon worth billions. And immediately 1.1 billion, the amount of civil engineering contracts voted on Wednesday by the Tisséo union council for the digging of tunnels or stations and the construction of viaducts. Cut into lots, they echo the largest groups led by Eiffage (539 million), Demathieu & Bard Construction (365 million) or Bouygues TPRF (132 million). Historic sums, in a single session.
But the latter was above all an opportunity to confirm what many feared: the enormous inflation of the total cost of the project. Estimated in 2017, at the time of its approval, at 2.7 billion, it had recently been revalued at nearly 3 billion. But “we are now at 3,444 billion”, announced Sacha Briand, the vice-president of the metropolis in charge of finance.
Troubled mayors
The new “additional cost”, linked in particular “to the increase in the price of materials”, exceeds 400 million. That we will have to find somewhere, and which some fear, the metropolitan opposition in mind, that it will burden all other mobility projects for a long time. For Jean-Michel Lattes, the game is worth the candle. “There is no finer project than this […], the largest project that has ever been launched in Toulouse and its surrounding area. »
With 200,000 travelers per day, the mayor of Colomiers, Karine Traval-Michelet (PS), also underlines that “no other transport can solve the mobility problems that we know in the agglomeration”. But she also believes that it will be necessary to “reassure” the inhabitants of Tisséo’s financial capacity to carry out other projects.
“We are talking about considerable sums. The wish that we can formulate is that we do not neglect the investment effort on connections and drawdowns for municipalities other than those, blessed by the gods, which are on the backbone of the project. , slipped Grégoire Carneiro (LR), the mayor of Castelginest. And when Christophe Lubac (PS), the mayor of Ramonville asks for a “fair distribution of efforts”, that of Portet, Thierry Suaud (PS), confesses on behalf of the communes of Muretain, far removed from the famous “backbone”, his “deep concern”. It also abstained from voting on civil engineering contracts.
Opening of the line in 2028
Already, last week, the county council, contributor of line C to the tune of 131 million euros, was worried about the “financial sustainability” of the project. The calculators will heat up after the holidays to put the accounts flat.
If the explosion of the invoice is now an assumed reality, on the deadlines, which the opposition considers improbable, Sacha Briand does not give up anything. “If companies committed to deadlines that they cannot meet, they would have late penalties, would advance the elected finance official. This line will open at the end of 2028”.