"I who am (...) a great supporter of the train and railway development, I seek everywhere to unlock road issues", declared the head of government on February 14, inaugurating a section of expressway bypassing Gimont (Gers ).

France "needs the roads", he insisted, noting that "the bad reputation of the road linked to greenhouse gas emissions, it is not linked to the road itself, but to the vehicles passing through it.

The problem to be resolved according to him with the rise of electric and hybrid engines.

"I am working to unblock road files that have been in the corner for sometimes thirty, forty years, to the great displeasure of the populations."

"It is even, between us, perhaps a little sad for our country that it is necessary, to unblock the bypass of a city, the personal and resolute involvement of the Prime Minister", still noted Jean Castex three days later. later in the Hautes-Pyrénées.

He was referring to the deviations from Auxerre and Tarascon-sur-Ariège, which like others were "becalmed".

The last motorway plan dates from 2003. Since then, the Grenelle Environment Forum, in 2007-2009, has changed the situation, and many projects have been shelved.

"There is no longer any need in France to significantly increase the capacity of the road network", proclaimed the National Transport Infrastructure Plan (Snit) project in 2010.

The doctrine has not changed too much since then, from the "Mobility 21 Commission" to the recommendations of the Infrastructure Orientation Council (COI), which were taken over by the government and annexed to the Mobility Orientation Law (LOM) of 2019.

A few road operations continued, chugging along, rather discreetly, while local opposition to the works grew.

- "Unacceptable" for environmentalists-

"We must stop building infrastructure that will always bring more cars and destroy always more natural spaces. The more roads we build, the more cars we will have", summarized the writer, director and environmental activist Cyril Dion.

Among the recurring criticisms, the disappearance of green spaces and agricultural land, because of the new axes and the inevitable activity areas popular with elected officials at interchanges.

"I don't have the shameful inauguration," Jean Castex said in December after the inauguration of the much-contested Strasbourg bypass, which he called a "tremendous adventure".

In the process, he announced a call for applications for the concession of the Rouen motorway bypass, which was thought to be off to a bad start due in particular to the opposition of the Norman metropolis.

And he guaranteed to the mayor of Chartres the launch of the A154 motorway on the Rouen-Orléans transverse axis.

In September, the Prime Minister awarded the A69 Toulouse-Castres motorway to the NGE group.

Even more recently, the western bypass of Montpellier was taken over by the Autoroutes du Sud de la France (ASF, Vinci group).

"In the LOM, we have defined axes on which motorways could be created", notes the Minister Delegate for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari.

All these projects "were in the LOM and are carried out as such".

Another was not: the Poitiers-Limoges axis, where the very congested N147 could be doubled by a motorway at the request of local elected officials.

A consultation is in progress.

"Committing today to a new motorway project is out of step with the ecological and economic emergencies and the real mobility issues of the moment", declared on this subject, on France Bleu, the mayor (EELV) of Poitiers, Leonore Moncond'huy.

"Beyond being unacceptable, it is a project that is not serious."

Hot supporter of the A147, Emile Roger Lombertie, mayor (LR) of Limoges, sees in the opposition of his colleague from Poitiers "ideological themes which bring us back to the Middle Ages".

The road component is almost absent from the presidential candidates.

Even the ecological Yannick Jadot does not talk about it in his program.

Among our neighbours, Wales and Wallonia have stopped all new road projects.

© 2022 AFP