Deliver to competition sites, transport laundry from hotels, evacuate waste… Heavy goods vehicles will be able to circulate more freely on weekends in France from May 1 to October 31, 2024, on the occasion of the Olympic Games, according to a decree published this Sunday April 7 in the Official Journal. Vehicles weighing more than 7.5 tonnes are normally not allowed to travel from 10 p.m. on Saturdays and the eve of public holidays, and until 10 p.m. on Sundays and public holidays. The exemption will concern heavy goods vehicles supplying sites “duly identified” by the organizing committee for the 2024 Games.
But other types of heavy goods vehicles will also be able to drive on weekends in Île-de-France and in neighboring departments, over a shorter period around the Olympic and then Paralympic Games, from July 19 to September 16, 2024. This concerns “vehicles transporting exclusively foodstuffs and products intended for human and animal food, hygiene and human or animal health”, those “ensuring the supply of clean linen and the evacuation of dirty linen from hotel structures” and “vehicles providing transport for waste disposal”. Carriers will have to present proof in the event of an inspection.
Apart from the reductions motivated by the Olympics, the State will limit the presence of large vehicles on the roads during the traffic peaks of the solar holidays. A decree thus prohibits the circulation of heavy goods vehicles from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. “on Saturdays July 6, July 20, July 27, August 3, August 10, August 17 and August 24, 2024 […] on all or part of the territory national”.
Another text also prohibits coaches carrying children from traveling over long distances “on dates when the forecast road traffic is the greatest” (Saturdays July 27 and August 3). “Vehicles operating public transport of children to or from an event officially linked to the 2024 Olympic Games” are not concerned.
