“Our first role is security”: meeting with Jean-Michel Fons, patroller of the Millau Viaduct

Jean-Michel Fons est patrouilleur depuis dix ans chez C.E.V.M Midi Libre – Laura Vaillant

Alors que l’ouvrage souffle sa 20e bougie ce mois de septembre, Midi Libre est parti à la rencontre des hommes et des femmes qui travaillent quotidiennement sur le Viaduc de Millau. Jean-Michel Fons est patrouilleur. Il raconte son métier.

Patroller. A term that is not well-known to ordinary mortals, but the role of those who are one is crucial when you take a motorway. At Eiffage, there are nine of them. Among them, Jean-Michel Fons who has been wearing the orange uniform for ten years now. “What I remember is my first day, the pride of coming to work here”, says the 50-year-old father in his intervention truck.

First a mason for 22 years, he then returned to school to obtain a professional baccalaureate in thermal and climate engineering. Finally, he answers a job offer from the C.E.V.M group and becomes a patrolman. “I really liked it”, smiles the fifty-year-old.

At the toll booth or on the motorway rest area

On a daily basis, the tasks of Jean-Michel Fons and the company's eight other patrollers are multiple. Present both on the route from the toll barrier and on the rest area, they also intervene within the structure itself. This differentiates them from maintenance technicians. ? The patroller's answer to the question is clear. “The technician will do more of the electronics. We touch very little on that aspect.” And to resume: “As for the rest, we touch on everything”.

Versatile, the patrollers are real handymen. Maintenance of green spaces around the route and the area, cleaning of drains near the roadway, safety of workers on the Viaduct, and many others. “It would take me days to explain everything we do”, laughs Jean-Michel Fons.

Ensuring user safety

“We are very versatile,” introduces the patrolman talking about his profession. Midi Libre – Laura Vaillant

Among the tasks incumbent upon him is that of testing the B.A.U, the emergency call terminals. On the first Sunday of each month, all the terminals present on the Viaduct, from the CO to the C8, are checked (C = cullée). The objective ? "To check its operation by making a call and to check that we are heard and that we are heard", explains the patrol officer.

Since his role is above all security, Jean-Michel Fons is often called upon to intervene when a vehicle breaks down in the area belonging to the C.E.V.M. "We have twenty minutes to arrive on site, he specifies. But we often arrive faster than that. The goal is to ensure that users do not remain in danger. We ask them to get out of the vehicle and get to safety behind the guardrails. But this is not always possible for them. Some are disabled."

A precise protocol to follow

And each intervention requires following a protocol. Whether it is to remove debris from the roadway or to go to green spaces outside the route. "We must inform the Security PC of each of our movements. The operators are in charge of opening the gates for us to access the intervention areas."

Patrolmen and operators at the Security PC are the only ones in the company to be on a time system organized around the "Three-Eight". The position changes every week: one week in the morning, one week in the afternoon and one week at night and again one week in the morning, etc. A sometimes difficult pace for this father who admits not having seen his daughter, now aged 21, grow up.

Despite this black spot, this work, Jean-Michel Fons never tires of it. “None of my days are the same. Each intervention is different, just like the users. Sometimes even with strangers! And there, you have to make yourself understood”, jokes the professional who recognizes it, the language of Shakespeare still has some secrets for him.