A69 motorway: Is the 55-year concession too long? The Council of State will look at the legality of the contract on May 14

It is a second front opened by the opponents of the motorway between Castres and Toulouse which is more “economical” than the one which enabled them to have the environmental authorizations of the A69 site canceled by the Toulouse administrative court on February 27, stopping the work.

The Council of State will indeed examine on Wednesday May 14, the use of nullity against the concession contract “because of its excessive duration” deposited almost a year ago by Me Christophe Leguevacques in the name of three associations: Act for the environment, Attac Tarn and the Vallons.

The State has entrusted the completion of this highway in Atosca which has a 55 -year operating concession. “Which is very long when for ten years the concessions have been more around 30 to 40,” said Leguevacques. But what attracted the attention of associations and their lawyer is a small sentence at the turn of the report of the Transport Regulatory Authority (Art) which mentions that “the duration of 40 years of conceded exploitation is sufficient” and that “the additional fifteen years are intended to reassure financial investors”.

“We should start all over again”

“It is illegal, says the lawyer. If 40 years are enough to amortize the investment this means that over the following 15 years the investors will enter their funds. And therefore that the operator takes no risk. While the principle of a concession is to transfer the risk to the operator. Otherwise we are on a public market”.

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The lawyer therefore hopes that the Council of State will judge the concession contract illegal “even if until then no jurisprudence says it clearly”. A decision which could therefore completely call into question the balance of the contract that the validation law that Tarn parliamentarians intend to vote to overcome the decision of the administrative court could not save. “We should start all over again,” said Leaguevacids.

The Council of State is expected to make its decision a month after the hearing. But we will already have an idea of ​​the turn of events the day before examining this appeal with the position of the public rapporteur on this issue.