“Drivers and residents exasperated” in Montpellier: the reopening of Boulevard Berthelot to traffic created chaos this Monday morning

The members of the 4-Boulevards collective were still educating this Monday morning. Midi Libre – L. D.

The work on tram line 5 had been preventing vehicles from driving down Boulevard Berthelot for several months. But this Monday, September 30, access was reopened. And local residents are not happy.

Boulevard Boulevard had been closed to two-way traffic for months. Only vehicles coming up from Place du 8-Mai could use the road. To go down, you had to take a detour.

This road was closed because of the works on tram line 5 and its future passage on Avenue Clemenceau and Place du 8-Mai. They lasted a little longer than expected due to poorly placed networks. Which did not displease local residents who saw less traffic under their windows and less pollution.

The 4-Boulevards collective in incomprehension

But this road was reopened to traffic on Monday, September 30, causing quite a few problems: “a bus got stuck, a mother who could not move forward even left her vehicle to take her children to school… “It was chaos,” explains Noémie from the 4-Boulevards collective.

“We are still waiting to be received by the mayor”, explains Alain Makinson, president of the residents' association who has been complaining for years about the deportation of traffic from this corner of the city and its concentration on a few streets “sacrificed”.

The members of the collective therefore mobilized once again, at the corner of Clemenceau and Berthelot, this Monday, September 30, to make their discontent and especially their incomprehension.

“There is no exchange with Mr. Delafosse, there are only empty words and nothing happens. However, we could find solutions…"

Noémie, she is disappointed: “Despite all the evidence we have given them, they have not wanted to change their traffic plan. We are furious and frustrated. And drivers and residents alike are fed up."

"A central node"

"At the Place du 8-Mai, motorists and buses pass on the tracks of the future tramway. When the line is opened, this will create a central node on the tramway tracks. And that's supposed to stay like that for traffic."