Whatever it costs, the A69 project will be maintained. Clément Beaune defended the Toulouse-Castres motorway project on Saturday, facing young opponents of this controversial project who disrupted a public intervention by the Minister for Transport, in particular by lying on the ground around him. Environmental activists first interrupted the minister’s intervention several times at the Futurapolis forum, organized by Le Point in Toulouse.
After several interruptions, a handful of these activists lay down a few meters from the minister, their hands painted red to simulate “the blood” that the construction of the A69 would cause to flow, which caused the interruption of the taking of word of the minister.
“Reviewed” highway projects
Clément Beaune, however, continued the dialogue with two young opponents, recalling in particular other highway projects were going to be stopped. However, he did not give a firm date to communicate the list of these decided projects: “I am fighting for it to be by the end of the year”, but “there is still work” to be done “ with local elected officials,” he said.
The Minister for Transport had already announced at the end of April that a “certain number of road projects” would be “reviewed”, promising a verdict “by the start of summer”.
Commissioning in 2025
On Saturday, he again categorically ruled out any possible shutdown of the A69 construction site. “It is also important that the democratic decisions that have been taken and announced” are implemented because, otherwise, “people will no longer believe in the words of politicians,” according to Clément Beaune.
The government is determined to complete this section of motorway “to completion”, which would reduce the Castres-Toulouse journey by around twenty minutes and which must be put into service in 2025.