In Reunion, (very) partial opening of the New Coastal Road

“Not to miss it”, dozens of motorists and bikers came to take for the first time, Sunday August 28, at noon (local time), the New Coastal Road (NRL), connecting the north and west of the island, at the point to create the beginning of a traffic jam. Immortalizing the moment with mobile phones, these users discovered a first section which overhangs, thanks to a 5.4 km viaduct, at a height of about thirty meters, the Indian Ocean, offering a majestic view of the blue waves. deep and the cliffs of the coast.

However, this opening is only carried out on two lanes, only in the Saint-Denis-La Possession direction and over 8.7 kilometers, while the NRL must be 12.5 kilometers long in its entirety, with twice three lanes, including two bus lanes.

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Nevertheless, it is an event “expected by all Reunionese to whom we have promised so much”, underlines Huguette Bello (various left), the president of the regional council, owner of a gigantic project, which accumulates the delays, the additional costs and the controversies. “We inherited, when we came to power [en juillet 2021]of a construction site totally at a standstill”, recalls the chosen one, and “of a great viaduct that led nowhere”.

A hole of 2.5 km

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, today estimate the services of the Réunion region.

Initially, the NRL extended over a part including this large viaduct and, on another, a long sea dike. This choice of the sea dike, retained in 2011 by the former president of the regional council, Didier Robert (various right) was to be less expensive and had the advantage of employing local companies, in particular carriers.

But, due to a lack of sufficient massive rock resources on the island and faced with the impossibility of opening a new quarry for environmental reasons, the Vinci-Bouygues consortium and its Reunionese subsidiaries negotiated the termination of the contract for 298 million euros. The result is that instead of this dyke at sea, there is a 2.5 km hole to connect La Grande Chaloupe to La Possession, the western part of the structure.

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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 the first eight kilometers into circulation. An additional project of 34 million euros, half of which was financed by the State and its recovery plan.

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