Patrick Allemand will probably never become the Mayor of Nice, but regarding the Line 2 and later Line 3 project, he has shown unwavering vigilance, and for that, he should be named the censor par excellence.
As a reminder: the socialist councilor has always been extremely critical of Christian Estrosi’s choice to prefer the underground option over the all-surface one. He has denounced its cost, predicted the overspending, and is now criticizing its additional costs.
He concluded: “with that money, we could have financed the extension of Line 1 to Ariane and La Trinité, thus completing the territorial network by opening up the eastern part of the agglomeration.”
During a press briefing, accompanied by Paul Cuturello, also a municipal and metropolitan councilor, the figures were laid bare.
At the last Metropolitan Council (last Monday, editor’s note), authorization program 46 “the West-East line / Extension towards Saint-Isidore” which was voted provides for a total amount of allocations after revaluation amounting to
945,139,041 euros.
Patrick Allemand is pleased to state with false modesty: “We are approaching the estimate we made. We had announced one billion euros,” and to recall that “Christian Estrosi had mentioned a cost of 270 million euros for tunnel and station works and 700 million euros for the entire project.”
Regarding the tunnel cost, the indicated figure (allocation: 10AFFGB003 – Tunnel / Station Works), the total amount of allocation after revaluation is 394,207,423.69 €
“There are, therefore, very significant additional costs on the underground part of Line 2, around 124 million euros more than the 270 million euros initially announced,” he added.
The cost of an underground kilometer, according to these latest figures, amounts to 123 million euros, whereas it is about 30 million euros on the surface depending on encountered difficulties.
“It is therefore rightly that we affirm that the extension of Line 1 towards La Trinité and Ariane has been swallowed up by the overrun costs of Line 2 of the tramway, particularly in its underground section,” is his bitter observation.
To console himself, he could adopt the saying of Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), British Prime Minister: “There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
