The French Government has stopped the construction works for the western Strasbourg bypass due to environmental issues.

Arcos, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Vinci responsible for building the bypass, was going to carry out field surveys in 1.5 hectares of what many consider environmentally sensitive areas. 

The project involves the building of a bypass around Strasbourg to the north and west through the Kochersberg region, linking the A4 to the A35/A352 junction. The contract runs for 55 years and covers the design, financing, construction, operation and maintenance of a new 24km section of toll motorway. The scope of work will initially involve the building of a two-lane dual carriageway section, which may be widened to three lanes in each direction without additional land in the future.

The total project investment is estimated at €553 million (US$649 million). 

As we reported, the Ministry of Transport awarded the project to Vinci’s consortium in October 2015. The win for Vinci came two years after winning the same contract, but which was cancelled over a lack of secure financing.

In 2016 VINCI signed the new concession contract and it announced that it would entirely finance the project without public subsidy.

The design-build works were supposed to take 56 months to complete but this delay is looming for construction of the project. Construction was to have started in 2013 for opening by early 2017 at the latest.