This Saturday in Saône-et-Loire, the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, validated the granting of an extension of 57 million euros to a project to build a section of expressway on the Route Centre-Europe- Atlantic (RCEA), in order to meet the deadlines.
Traveling to the RCEA site in Navour-sur-Grosne, near Cluny, Jean Castex signed a letter of intent with the Bourgogne Franche-Comté department and region granting him the sum of 57 million euros to allow the acceleration of the works and their expected completion in 2024. This sum is in addition to the 6 million euros financed by each of the two communities.
“The roads remain useful”
“I am attached to the train and we have relaunched several major projects, night trains, reopening of lines with the regions (…) But we still need the road,” he said. “Roads remain useful and contribute to sustainable development as well as to energy transition,” he said.
The project consists of transforming several sections with a total length of 88 km of the national RN79, nicknamed “the road of death” for its dangerousness, into a fast track, which will be double-tracked. Phase 1 of this very important work has been completed and will have cost 200 million euros.
A project worth 800 million euros
“Phase 2, which was anticipated in the studies, will thus be completed in 2023 for most of the works and with full implementation in 2024,” indicated the Dreal (Regional Department for the Environment, Planning and Housing). This second phase now has a cost of 600 million euros, 420 million of which will be matched by the State. At the same time, the RCEA motorway built in the neighboring department of Allier will be completed at the end of 2022.
Very busy, the RCEA crosses France from East to West. The section between Allier and Saône-et-Loire has several single-lane sections which make overtaking excessively dangerous. It is nicknamed “the road of death” due to a large number of accidents.