Illustration of the 2x2 lane construction site between Rennes and Redon.

-

J. Gicquel / APEI / 20 Minutes

  • The year 2020 looked promising for public works before the Covid-19 epidemic brought a whole industry to a halt.

  • The health crisis also led to the postponement of municipal elections, thereby blocking all calls for tenders.

  • Without these public orders, companies fear that the year 2021 will be very complicated.

In Ille-et-Vilaine as elsewhere, public works companies are in low spirits at the moment.

The year 2020 was nevertheless presented under the best auspices with rather full order books.

But the Covid-19 crisis has derailed the entire sector, which employs more than 4,000 employees in the department.

"The loss of activity should be of the order of 15 to 20% for the year 2020", estimates Raymond Armange, president of the federation of public works in Ille-et-Vilaine (TP 35).

After the confinement period, which brought all construction sites to a standstill, the coronavirus epidemic also resulted in the postponement of the second round of municipal elections which took place on June 28 instead of March 22.

A shift that will have serious consequences for a sector that lives at 60% of public procurement.

"It took six months for the municipal teams and the inter-municipal authorities to set up and during all this time, there was no call for tenders", indicates Raymond Armange, who heads the SMPT company in Saint-Malo. .

"The hole will be inevitable in 2021"

As a result, business order books are melting like snow in the sun.

"Before the crisis, we had between four and six months of visibility, against two or three weeks now," says the leader.

The situation is all the more tense in the department as major projects such as the high-speed line, the construction of line B of the metro or the development of the Rennes-Redon or Rennes-Angers roads are now a thing of the past.

And the other sites are sorely awaited.

Because in this troubled and uncertain period, the new elected officials are reluctant to launch large investments.

“But without these calls for tenders, the air gap will be inevitable in 2021,” warns Raymond Armange, fearing it will be broken if the horizon does not light up very quickly.

The breakthrough of environmentalists in municipal elections worries

The breakthrough of environmentalists in the last municipal elections is not likely to reassure the profession either.

"We can think that the road files will be looked at differently by some teams", underlines the president of the TP 35 federation, while ensuring that the sector is ready to take the turn of the ecological transition.

"The State stimulus plan gives us hope, but it is now necessary that this translate into concrete actions and without delay", indicates Raymond Armange.

Society

The epidemic is experiencing a slight lull but the Rennes University Hospital calls for "extreme vigilance"

Society

Justice suspends the decree on the closure of sports halls in Rennes

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • Reindeer

  • Construction

  • Construction site

  • Works

  • Economy