• Works with closures of access ramps are continuing this week on the western ring road of Bordeaux.

  • The section at Eysines will be upgraded to three lanes twice by the end of June.

  • The objective is to make traffic flow more fluid, particularly that of heavy goods vehicles, but other measures will have to be considered to solve the problems of congestion on the ring road.

Work will further disrupt traffic on the western ring road of Bordeaux in the coming days.

But it's for a good cause, the setting to two times three lanes of the main road known for its recurring congestion problems, finally coming to an end.

Sanitation work on the ramps of interchanges 8 and 9 in the Eysines sector will continue until Thursday, May 12 at 6 a.m., resulting in alternate closures of the ramps.

“Diversions will be put in place to minimize the inconvenience caused” indicates the prefecture.

Completion of the 2x3 lanes in 2023

This work is one of the last touches before passing this section to two times three lanes, by the end of June.

There will then only be a section of a little less than 3 km, between interchanges 5 and 7, to be changed to three lanes, which is planned for June 2023. The work on the ring road will then finally be completed, and it will be almost 100% equipped with three traffic lanes.

The challenge is to streamline traffic on this 45 km loop, whose traffic varies between 80,000 and 150,000 vehicles/day, depending on the time and the sectors.

The third lane should in particular facilitate the circulation of heavy goods vehicles, in particular heavy goods vehicles in transit, ie those making journeys between northern Europe and the Iberian peninsula.

“Third lane draft is temporary”

“Every day, heavy goods vehicles represent more than 15% of road traffic on the eastern bypass (20,000 vehicles) compared to 6 to 8% on the western bypass (8,000 vehicles), analyzes Bordeaux Métropole.

The share of HGV traffic in transit is 50% of total HGV traffic on the eastern bypass, but only 5% on the western bypass.

If the share of trucks in the traffic difficulties is undeniable – a heavy goods vehicle occupying on average the surface of 2.5 cars – it is not essential either.

This is why upgrading the ring road to two lanes to the west will not, on its own, solve all the congestion problems.

"It is possible that the end of the complete passage to 2x3 lanes in the west will allow a rebalancing of the bypass routes, in particular for heavy goods vehicles providing service to the agglomeration, analyzes the Bordeaux-Aquitaine A'Urba urban planning agency. .

But, as has been seen on the sections already finalized, the draft of the third lane is temporary, and the new lane is gradually filling up mainly with light vehicles.

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Toll modulation at peak times?

To go further, Bordeaux Métropole created a dedicated working group at the beginning of the year, which is continuing its action around the question of works and the limitation of heavy goods vehicles during rush hours.

“A possible modulation of [motorway] tolls at peak times would require the approval of the European Commission (Euro vignette directive), indicates the metropolis in a press release.

This request for experimentation will soon be presented to Europe by the French State and Bordeaux Métropole.

Here again, it will be necessary to measure the effectiveness of such a measure, the A'Urba study showing that "when the traffic is the densest, at peak times, heavy goods vehicle traffic and transit, are less important.

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  • Bordeaux

  • Aquitaine

  • Traffic

  • Heavy weights

  • Bypass