It’s the excitement this Thursday at 8:30 am on the quays of the Champs-Elysées. Usually, it is rather house barges that are moored, but this time it is a 50-meter transport vessel loaded with granite pallets. These stones are intended for the renovation of the sidewalks of the Champs-Elysées for the 2024 Olympics.
And as this is the first load to be unloaded, local elected officials wanted to mark the occasion. On this sunny morning were therefore present, among others, Jeanne d’Hauteserre, LR mayor of the 8th arrondissement, who did not hide his happiness that the work was starting and that “the avenue was renewed with dignity”, Emmanuel Grégoire, first deputy Anne Hidalgo in charge of town planning, Marc-Antoine Jamet, president of the Champs-Elysées committee (CCE), or even Philippe Chiambaretta, the architect behind the avenue transformation project, who will intervene in a second time, after 2024.
The need for “structural renovation”
Emmanuel Grégoire hailed “a major project that will redesign what makes up the face of Paris”. For him, it was time to do “a structural renovation”, 30 years after the last one. It revolves around four points: “Vegetation, preservation of heritage, attractiveness and mobility”. On this last subject, he specified that nothing will be done before 2024 and discussions with the police headquarters and the CCE, while unveiling a (cycling) path: “Coming to Vélib’, I went down the Champs and cobblestones for bicycles, it’s not top level safety, it may need to be reviewed. »
Smiling, Marc-Antoine Jamet was delighted with the “efficiency” of the work. “The announcement was made three months ago and it’s already starting! From 2023, we will have concrete and real effects. This renovation of the sidewalks, but also of the roadway and green spaces, especially at the bottom of the avenue, the Champs-Elysées needed it, according to the president of the CCE. And who says refurbishment, says improved commercial attractiveness, which is not to displease Marc-Antoine Jamet.
The latter also welcomes the delivery by boat which saves the journeys of 15 trucks from Bonneuil-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne) where the granite was stored. “This ecological sobriety is an image that the Champs-Elysées did not have,” he comments. “This is the first time that a project of such magnitude has been delivered by barge”, assures Emmanuel Grégoire. According to the local elected official, a total of 14,000 m² of granite blocks will be transported by river, the equivalent of 260 trucks. And above all it is not much longer, since from Bonneuil, “it takes two hours via the Marne and the Seine to arrive at the port of the Champs-Elysées”, explains Gilles Peyrot, of Sogestran Logistics, who supervised the delivery. With the density of traffic in the Paris conurbation, it is certainly even faster.