The 12.5 kilometers of the road will not be completed before 2030, with ten years late, and a budget estimated at 2.2 billion euros.
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“To avoid missing this”, dozens of motorists and bikers came to take for the first time, Sunday August 28, at noon (local time), the new Littoral route (NRL), connecting the North And the west of the island, to the point of creating a start of traffic jam. Immortalizing the moment with mobile phones, these users discovered a first section which overlooks, thanks to a 5.4 km viaduct, about thirty meters high, the Indian Ocean, by offering a majestic view of the blue waves deep and the cliffs of the coast.
This opening is only carried out on two ways, only in the direction of Saint-Denis-the possession and on 8.7 kilometers, while the NRL must be long in its entire 12.5 kilometers, with twice three lanes, including two bus corridors.
Despite everything, it is an event “expected by all the Reunionese to whom we promised so much”, underlines Huguette Bello (various left), the president of the regional council, contracting authority of a gigantic project, who Accumulates delays, additional costs and controversies. “We inherited, when we came to power [in July 2021], from a completely stopping site”, recalls the elected official, and “of a large viaduct which did not lead anywhere”.
A 2.5 km hole 2>
started in 2014, the site was to be completed in 2020 at a cost of 1.6 billion euros. The NRL will not be completed before 2030, and the total budget will exceed 2.2 billion, estimate today the services of the Reunion region.
Initially, the NRL extended to a part comprising this large viaduct and, on another, a long dike at sea. This choice of dike at sea, retained in 2011 by the former president of the Regional Council, Didier Robert (various right) had to be less expensive and had the advantage of making local businesses work, especially carriers.
But, in the absence of sufficient resources on the island in massive rocks and faced with the impossibility of opening a new career for environmental reasons, the Vinci-Bouygues group and its Reunional subsidiaries have negotiated the termination of the 298 market millions of euros. The result is that instead of this dike at sea, there is a 2.5 km hole to connect the Grande Chaloupe to La Possession, the western part of the work.
Faced with the impossibility of finishing the NRL for years, the solution was to build a connection ramp with the current coastal road to put into circulation the first eight kilometers finished. An additional site of 34 million euros, half of which was funded by the State and its recovery plan.
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