To fill the 2.5 kilometer hole between two dikes and complete the new coastal road (NRL), which should have been delivered in 2020, the president of the Reunion regional council made a decision. Huguette Bello (left) announced, Wednesday, February 9, the construction of a second viaduct. The structure will replace the sea dyke, whose 298 million euro contract was terminated by the consortium led by Vinci due to a shortage of massive rocks on the island, their additional costs, and the impossibility to open a new quarry for environmental reasons.
After having denounced the management by his predecessor, Didier Robert (right), of the project whose bill went from 1.6 billion euros to “presumably 2.2 billion”, Huguette Bello promised, when elected in June 2021, to complete the work. A vital axis for the island, 12.5 kilometers in two times three lanes, connecting the airport to the port and renamed everywhere “the most expensive road in the world”. The chosen one assures “wanting to move forward and go fast” and ask for consent Matignon III or“Elysee I”, with reference to previous financing plans. According to his entourage, the State assured the community of its “technical and budgetary partnership”. It remains to know the amount of its participation for this second viaduct, the cost of which is estimated between 500 million and 700 million euros.
The structure will be a replica of the first 5.4 kilometer viaduct built some 30 meters above the Indian Ocean, far enough from the cliff not to be affected by falling boulders, which threaten the 66 000 daily users of the current coastal road. According to a study of the region published in October 2021, “the completion of the work would take place seven years after the decision of the community”, due to new environmental authorizations to be obtained, studies to be carried out and the launch of a new call for tenders. The NRL will not be completed before 2029 or 2030. Or later, in the event of new hazards.
Threat of blocking truckers
The all-viaduct option, already studied during the studies prior to the construction site, is now becoming a “more rational solution”. “With cyclone Batsirai, all Reunionese have seen that the swell does not pass over the large viaduct”, underlined Huguette Bello. This would not have been the case with a road laid on the dyke at sea. euros.
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