Toulouse

“Toulouse-Castres motorway. Fifteen minutes gained, thousands of trees massacred”, denounces the banner of the collective La Voie Est Libre on the edge of the national road 126, in front of the camp of about thirty ecologists, in Vendine (Haute-Garonne). After the violent opposition to the “mega-basin” of Sainte-Soline, in Deux-Sèvres, the construction of 62 kilometers of motorway between Castelmaurou (Haute-Garonne) and Castres (Tarn) is the new fight of environmental activists .

Thousands of demonstrators from all over France are expected this weekend, at the call of La Voie est libre, the Uprisings of the Earth, Extinction Rebellion Toulouse and the Confédération paysanne. Elected environmentalists and LFI deputies will be present. “The Toulouse-Castres highway will be the new objective of the ultra-left,” said Gérald Darmanin after the clashes in Sainte-Soline. But the authorities would expect fewer demonstrators in the Tarn, around 1,500 people, including 50 to 100 violent activists. The organizers insist on the peaceful nature of the rally. “We organize workshops and concerts, we don’t want people to relive the trauma of Sainte-Soline, underlines Nicolas (*), young activist from Extinction Rebellion Toulouse. But it will depend on the police repression ”.

As a sign of good will, the Confédération paysanne du Tarn and Attac declared the demonstration to the prefecture. The rally will take place in the village of Saïx (Tarn), at the entrance to Castres, in a field “made available by an individual threatened with expropriation”. Highlight of the weekend: the big “determined march”, Saturday at 2 p.m. The prefecture has banned gatherings in front of the sub-prefecture of Castres and the factory of the pharmaceutical group Pierre Fabre in Soual. “State services will not accept attacks on the Atosca concessionaire (…), on the integrity of public buildings and certain companies, nor the establishment of permanent installations”, warned the prefect of Tarn, François-Xavier Lauch, who mobilized eight units of mobile forces to reinforce the gendarmerie group and departmental public security.

In the Tarn, the rally revives the tragic memory of the opposition to the Sivens agricultural dam, where Rémi Fraisse, 21, was killed by a grenade in October 2014. Since then, the construction of the dam has been abandoned.

The motorway project to open up the basin of Castres and Mazamet, the last medium-sized towns in the Toulouse region not served by a fast road, has been supported for thirty years by local elected officials and the Pierre Fabre group, which employs 2,000 people in the Tarn. It was the subject of a public debate in 2009 and two declarations of public utility in 2017 and 2018, before former Prime Minister Jean Castex made it a “national priority” in 2019. not finance the four-laning of the national road – only two deviations were made over 10 kilometers – it conceded the construction of the A69 motorway and its operation for 55 years to the project company Atosca, set up by the constructor NGE Concessions with the Portuguese motorway manager Ascendi. After the favorable opinion of the environmental public inquiry, in February 2023, the prefects of Haute-Garonne and Tarn granted the work permits on March 2.

Atosca will build, by 2025, 53 kilometers of this highway, with four interchanges, taking over the portions already widened at a cost of 450 million euros excluding tax, including 23 million in public subsidies. At the same time, Vinci will widen the 9 km ramp between the Toulouse-Albi motorway and the future A69, in Verfeil, to four lanes for 80 million euros excluding tax. The motorway will save 25 minutes on the journey between Castres and Toulouse. “But in 2023, we can no longer destroy 400 hectares of agricultural land, woods and wetlands to build a highway parallel to the national road!, gets carried away Gilles Garric, member of the collective La Voie est libre. The traffic does not justify a 2 × 2 lanes. In the end, we will have six lanes for 7,000 vehicles per day (8,000 according to the state, editor’s note), it’s ridiculous!” A hundred farmers are impacted by the route. Instead, opponents propose to develop the national road “for six times less money”.

The Tarn Chamber of Commerce and Industry thinks on the contrary that the motorway will stop the demographic decline of this basin of 130,000 inhabitants. “While the arrondissement of Castres was steadily losing population, economic activities and jobs, neighboring towns, such as Montauban, Albi and Cahors, were on the rise, notes the CCI. There is only one reason for this: the existence of a motorway link connecting them to the Toulouse conurbation”. Three hundred and twenty companies from the Tarn have signed a manifesto in favor of the motorway, including the transport group Castan. “Our activity has not developed in Castres because of the absence of a motorway, whereas it is increasing in Béziers, affirms its co-manager, Mathurin Castan. And it’s incomparable for safety.”

An Odoxa poll conducted for Atosca indicates that 75% of residents support the construction of the A69. The inhabitants of the south of the Tarn feel neglected compared to the prefecture, Albi, linked to Toulouse by an almost free motorway for thirty years. “The construction of the A68 between Toulouse and Albi was an accelerator for the north of the Tarn, we can see it around Gaillac”, underlines the president of the departmental council, Christophe Ramond (PS).

In addition to the price of the toll, around 17 euros for a round trip Castres-Toulouse by car, the opponents denounce above all the damage to the environment. “This project is not in line with the State’s objective of zero net artificialisation of land”, denounces Nicolas, recalling that the Environmental Authority deemed the project obsolete in its opinion of October 2022.

Atosca replies that this 21st century highway will be exemplary for sustainable development. “We will cut 200 avenue trees and replant 400,” said Martial Gerlinger, CEO of Atosca. Less than 10 hectares of afforestation will be cut and 25 hectares will be replanted. If we had widened the national road, we would have cut many more trees.” “But we will have to wait 130 years to have the same leaf mass!” Plague Thomas Brail, founder of the National Tree Monitoring Group, determined to stay perched on a plane tree in Vendine.

(*) The first name has been changed.