At least two thirds of the main road by-pass of the cité idéale have been completed and are in operation.
The remaining one third segment has been long delayed by environmental battles concerning vegetation loss, although the actual new road alignment itself has been established for a while - Henri P. has ridden the grassy route on a bicycle - and the rights of acquisition settled.
This current situation means that a main traffic artery, recently upgraded for heavy trucks over many kilometres, is only un-up-graded exactly where it passes one of France's national treasures of urban design. Enormous euro-trucks rattle the foundations of the town's 17th century girdling walls, and their raucous engines deafen the inhabitants on the western side of the town as lorries cruise past at any old time, day or night.
So we are gagging with excitement that France's cumbersome bureaucracy seems to have finally 'pulled its finger out' and started this much delayed project.....
But we may be mistaken....
We need confirmation from someone on the ground, at the heart of local politics, that it is really true....
We are sceptical....
But hopeful....
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| the alignment of the last segment of the town's bypass is started?..... - a view from the Knauf works roundabout towards Loudun - |
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All comments will be gratefully received below....
2 comments:
It's true! Check out the photos on blog du Cardinal!
http://www.richelais.eu/blogducardinal/
These excavations shown above, now re-filled, are for archaeological work that must anticipate the completion of the by-pass works in 2019. Already found at this 'round-about' site are two sarcophaguses from the Merovingian period, one at present in the Richelieu town hall and the other at the church of Braye-sous-Faye.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merovingian_dynasty.
The second obstruction remains some rare nesting birds that occupy a site on the road's anticipated alignment, near to the former town rubbish tip. Either the birds must be 're-housed' on a new many-acre site, or the alignment must be changed to circumnavigate the current nesting location. Either plan requires some complex land acquisition from local farmers not anxious to sell off their own land to the town.
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