Good news for the residents of the Vésubie Valley and Plan du Var: the Mountain Road 2565 was reopened last night to vehicles weighing less than 3.5 tonnes.
Now, all the villages connected by RM2565 will be able to return to an almost normal life. The Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolitan services announced the good news yesterday: “Thanks to this exceptional work and mobilization, RM2565, the main access road to Vésubie, will reopen to traffic up to Saint-Martin-Vésubie. Achieving this in less than three weeks is a feat!” Christian Estrosi congratulated while thanking the services mobilized on the ground.
About twenty kilometers of road remain inaccessible, notably to reach the village of Fontan, where access remains complicated. A temporary access should be operational during the course of next week.
A total of 500 million euros will be needed to restore the entire road network in the valleys. No fewer than 350 road agents were mobilized from the first day to ensure a quick recovery of the primary access routes.
Roya Still Difficult to Access
Anne-Marie Mallavant, in her capacity as director of roads and transport infrastructure, provided an update on the overall situation in the affected areas. The accessibility issues in the Roya do not currently allow for a precise diagnosis of the state of the roads. The question of rebuilding in the same locations is being considered to avoid another destruction. “All our energy is being put towards reestablishing access, even provisionally,” Mrs. Mallavant stated, as was done for the lower Var in Malaussène. Works are also ongoing in the Estéron, where two breaks require the intervention of multiple road workers.
South of Breil-sur-Roya, the Italian highway has been restored in a degraded state, but does not allow for the transporting of large equipment like construction machinery, whose delivery is done via the Brouis Pass to clear access in the Roya Valley. With the exit of the Tenda Tunnel completely destroyed, it is impossible to access the Valley from the north. The Pertus Bridge is being restored. The landslides near Piene, which also block access, are being cleared. This is a long and tedious task due to the current impossibility of bringing large construction machinery to the site.
In this particularly affected area, advancement works are necessary and require time before new access can be opened for the residents who are stranded there.
