“Colossal waste of public funds”: Beynac’s rejection, mismanagement that turns into a headache

The bill is too high for the Dordogne department, protector for thirty years of the Beynac diversion, this road bypasses the city of the same name, located in the very touristic Dordogne valley. Although the deviation was granted in 2018, it was overturned by the Council of State a year later and finally buried in 2022 by the Court of Administrative Appeal (CAA) of Bordeaux with an obligation to carry out rehabilitation within twelve months.

But, having failed to mark the start of demolition work, in particular the bridge supports and the pouring of large concrete warts in the Dordogne, the CAA in July 2023 sentenced the agency to a fine of 489,000 euros. This Tuesday, April 16, the court again ordered the community to pay 1.433 million euros because the restoration began late and very partially.

Chairman of the departmental council attached to the project

The total amount of fines now amounts to almost 2 million euros, and the work already underway and its demolition is estimated at 40 million. “A colossal waste of public funds on a useless project,” scoffs Philippe d’Eaubonne, president of the ASVD (Association to Save the Dordogne Valley), who would prefer “the department to repair the roads, which are in a deplorable state. »

Germinal Peyraud, president of the Dordogne, cries out about injustice. “We started the demolition in July, not October,” says the elected official, who, if he has to “sign office orders soon to remove the bridge supports,” has no intention of abandoning his slope and hopes that “the new Bypass Project presented in 2023, will be successful. And that this will allow the abandoned bridge supports to be reused.

It is unlikely, according to the administrative court, for which “the new project of the multimodal roundabout, running along the same route as the original project, cannot be considered as a circumstance that could explain the delay in the execution of the demolition and restoration work,” recalling that the first project violated the environmental code without the possibility of its regularization.

“If we have to demolish everything, the Perigourdins will lose not 2, but 40 million euros,” warns Germinal Peyraud.