16 March 2017 | Paris, France

The French Senate Commission for land use planning and sustainable development has just released an informative report on the current condition of the motorway and road infrastructures in France. This report reveals the trend towards a degradation of the networks and warns about the mid- and long-term consequences.

According to Senator Hervé Maurey “once the degradation is proved, it becomes more costly and complicated to maintain the network, as the railway example has demonstrated: the State must therefore react in a quick and responsible manner in order to prevent the road network from experiencing a similar fate”. This report also contains the minutes of the roundtable organised on 8th February, which gathered representatives from the most structuring road networks – the State, the motorway companies, the Departments – as well as road sector industry and road users. This roundtable confirmed the absolute necessity of increasing the resources dedicated to the maintenance of the road network.

15 February 2016 | Paris, France

Alain Vidalies, the French State Secretary in charge of Transport, Sea and Fisheries, announced an investment plan for 2016 concerning the maintenance of the national roads and waterways. The French government intends to allocate an additional €150 million to the €300 million already planned in operations for upgrading national roads.

Mr Vidalies decided to make maintenance a priority, as he believes roads and waterways infrastructure to be a vital part of the French economy.

Investing in the maintenance of these networks is will immediately result to new job positions, and it will generate further business activity, both for companies and authorities.

In 2015, Alain Vidalies had launched an initial investment plan of € 100 million in existing networks, thus over 150 projects were then launched. The investment plan for 2016 is the highest in the last 10 years.