The French State has compensated the concessionaire of the longer term A69 motorway to the tune of 79 million euros after the lengthy interruption of the development website in 2025, we realized on Tuesday March 3 from the Ministry of Transport.
Work on this new Toulouse-Castres axis was interrupted on February 27, 2025 by a judgment from the Toulouse administrative courtroom which canceled the environmental authorization granted to this undertaking. A undertaking which has been the topic, because the begin of the undertaking, of robust protest from environmental protection associations.
The development website was then approved to renew on the finish of May, following a primary provisional determination from the Toulouse administrative courtroom of enchantment which lastly validated the environmental authorization on December 30. The Council of State is now seized of the matter.
The interruption that occurred between February and May “upset the economic balance of the contract” handed between the State and the Atosca concessionaire, defined a ministerial supply, confirming the cost of compensation to Atosca, revealed by the investigative media Media.
A “highway on public funds”
This upheaval made it essential to barter on the finish of which compensation was agreed, round 79 million euros, in line with the identical supply, an quantity “almost halved compared to initial requests” of Atosca, she stated.
In a press launch to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the concessionaire merely acknowledged that“mediation was carried out by two independent third parties between the State and Atosca in order to define the conditions for resuming work”. “This makes it possible to cover the additional costs which are imposed on the company, on the concessionaire, and were not provided for in the initial contract, due to the cessation of the construction site”detailed the ministerial supply.
The Ministry of Transport, which “deplores” this example, notes that it “is the result of the legal appeals that there were against this site which was already very committed” and a “quasi-judicial obstruction by opponents”. These roughly 80 million “extra cost” come “to increase” the whole finances, which was estimated between 400 and 500 million euros, added the ministry.
“The State is a servile lackey who lies down in front of NGE-Atosca and the A69 enforcers”castigated the collective of opponents The means is free, denouncing a “system organized to offer a private group its highway with public funds”. “The site is fully mobilized, with delivery planned for the second half of 2026”for its half underlined Atosca in its press launch.
https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2026/03/03/autoroute-a69-l-etat-indemnise-a-hauteur-de-79-millions-d-euros-le-concessionnaire-pour-l-interruption-du-chantier-en-2025_6669378_3244.html