Everything is there: additional costs of nearly a billion euros, a total delivery date still unclear for a project started in 2014, the risky choice of a dike at sea, the investigation still in progress at the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office aimed at procurement. This is the black book of the new coastal road (NRL) in Reunion. In a report made public on Friday, December 16, the Regional Chamber of Accounts (CRC) of Reunion and Mayotte autopsy the calamitous management of this strategic axis of 12.3 kilometers connecting the north and the west of the island and borrowed by approximately 85,000 users daily.
The main finding of the financial magistrates is that the NRL represents a burden for the finances of a community the size of the regional council of La Réunion, the project owner. The cost of the NRL is estimated at 2.5 billion euros by the CRC, or 200 million euros per kilometre. When it was launched in 2010, the budget provided for 1.66 billion euros. The former president (various right) of the region, Didier Robert, and his majority have ” underestimated “ the amount of the project, notes the CRC deploring “a lack of reliability and updating of information intended for regional elected representatives and, beyond that, for citizens”.
The court recommends Huguette Bello, president (various left) since July 2021, to produce “a realistic financial trajectory” to complete this route. Part of the delays of the NRL, again notes the CRC, comes from the conclusion of the contracts for the sea dike even though access to the massive rock quarries, essential for its construction, has not been well “anticipated and prepared”. In his response to the magistrates, Didier Robert denounces “the fault of the state” unable to open new quarries for environmental reasons.
“On-sight management”
At the end of August, the NRL was partially opened to traffic, in one direction, for two-thirds of its route, with a 5.4 km offshore viaduct, to replace the current coastal road, which has become dangerous because located at the foot of a cliff and threatened with being destroyed by cyclones. Full delivery should not take place before 2030, after the construction of a second viaduct at sea in place of the sea wall.
The funding comes from a third memorandum of understanding between the State and the Reunion region, signed in March, for an amount of 846 million euros, including 426 million for the local community, an additional weight on its shoulders. In 2020, the Reunion region’s debt reduction capacity was 11.8 years, beyond the standard provided for by the public finance programming law for 2018-2022, which sets a threshold of nine years.
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