The work is progressing well and it is now possible to borrow from start to finish the Simone-Veil bridge, the commissioning of which is announced for July 2024. To celebrate the good progress of this project which has experienced many adventures, elected officials from both banks including the mayor of Bordeaux Pierre Hurmic, that of Bègles Clément Rossignol and Floirac, Jean- Jacques Puyobrau symbolically crossed the structure this Tuesday, drenched by intermittent showers.
After a technical dispute between Fayat, who initially won the site, and the Métropole, the work was stopped in 2018 and the contract re-awarded to Bouygues. The health crisis added another layer. In the end, this eighth bridge over the Garonne will be delivered almost four years behind the initial schedule. Its total cost amounts to 151 million euros.
“44% of the space for pedestrians”
“What a beautiful symbol this link across a bridge has been waiting for decades and which was first called the Jean-Jacques Bosc bridge,” enthused Jean-Jacques Puyobrau, who is counting on the work to further strengthen the the attractiveness of a right bank which has transformed in recent years. If it was launched by Juppé when he was at the Métropole, Pierre Hurmic confided that he “finds himself in the choices that have been made”: “a bridge which is 44 meters wide including 18 meters which will be dedicated to pedestrians c It’s enormous, it makes 44% of the space for pedestrians, a place to live and walk, these are no longer the road bridges of the past. »
The Aquitaine Bridge is representative of these bridges designed for cars at the end of the 1960s. The Chaban-Delmas bridge (commissioned in 2012) already took into account changes in travel modes, but the Simone-Veil bridge goes even further, by offering, in addition to a two-way cycle path, a public space thanks to to the widening of the space allocated to pedestrians and two-wheelers by almost 20 meters. In addition to two lanes per direction for the circulation of cars and heavy goods vehicles, one lane per direction is provided for public transport, a priori an express bus. “It will change the lives of many people on a daily basis,” assured the mayor of Bordeaux.