Economic losses “one million euros per week”: in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, after violent bad weather in the Aspe valley, the closure for several months of the Somport border pass is penalizing local businesses, both French and Spanish.
The torrential rains that fell during the night of September 7 to 8 destroyed twenty-five houses, numerous vehicles but also part of the RN 134, the border axis which connects Spain to France via the Somport pass. The work to fill this gap, which began on October 11, should make it possible to reopen the road to traffic in January, hopes the Pyrénées-Atlantiques prefecture.
Until then, the Pass and its eponymous tunnel, located on an axis which links Pau to Zaragoza, will remain closed.
Every day, between 400 and 500 trucks and around 800 light vehicles use this so-called Pyrenean route. « central »an alternative to the major passages which are Biriatou, on the Atlantic side, and Le Perthus, on the Mediterranean side.
This closure is synonymous with a « important handicap »for the logistics sector, estimates Octavio López, elected for logistics and territorial cohesion of the government of Aragon and president of a cross-border group of elected officials.
Logistics node
Less than 200 kilometers from the Somport pass, Zaragoza is home to the largest logistics center in Europe on more than 13 square kilometers.
There we find in particular the Inditex group, owner of Zara, which established its first distribution center there 21 years ago, but also Decathlon warehouses, covering 51,000 m2.
From the platform, nearly 600 companies ship goods and “many of them have connections with France”said the chosen one again.
Somport also concentrates tourist flows between the two border valleys of Aspe and Canfranc, and “feeds the economy of many businesses in Aragonese towns and the north of the province of Huesca”.
Excavators take part on October 11 in reconstruction work on a portion of the RN 134 following the floods in Urdos in the south-west of France / Gaizka IROZ / AFP
Since September, Spanish elected officials have estimated losses at one million euros per week, says Octavio López, who is worried about “the survival of many businesses”.
Ángel Gil, head of an Aragonese logistics cluster, called Alia, judges that the situation “severely affects businesses dependent on efficient roads to maintain regular operations”.
The detour via the Biriatou motorway interchange, 300 kilometers away, makes “increasing costs” et “generates significant disruption due to the delays this causes”particularly for food or the transport of cereals.
“Where carriers could make five trips per week, they now only make three”summarizes Angel Gil.
Agricultural convoys
Pressed on both sides of the border, the Department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques set up agricultural convoys through the neighboring Ossau valley and its secondary Pourtalet pass.
On this departmental road, which remains prohibited for heavy goods vehicles, two daily convoys have been organized for ten days, to allow the delivery of straw and fodder from Spain to farmers in the valley and the Oloron foothills.
“Without this solution, there would have been no delivery, because the carriers would simply have given up on the journey, given the additional cost of the detour. He was also not tolerable by the breeders”explains Guillaume Narbaïs Jaureguy, employee of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques Chamber of Agriculture.
“We can’t let them down”adds Clément Servat, departmental advisor. After the straw and fodder, will follow deliveries of corn and convoys of animals, sent to be fattened in Spain, specifies the elected official.
More “cuts on this axis on the French side are common during the winter, which limits the scope of this alternative”tempers the Aragonese Octavio López.
For several decades, certain elected officials on both sides of the border have campaigned for the creation of the Central Crossing of the Pyrenees (TCP), a sea serpent project which aimed to create a rail tunnel dedicated to freight.
Clément Servat believes that this « catastrophe » will perhaps allow “change paradigm” on this European axis, a mountain link subject to natural hazards, which requires 6 million euros of maintenance each year, injected by the State.
