Skip to main content

French budgets trimmed

Reductions in road building budgets are being implemented in various departments in France, in a bid to cut overall spending. In 2009 some €4.5 billion was spent on the road budget, compared with €3.9 billion planned for 2012.
March 16, 2012 Read time: 1 min
Reductions in road building budgets are being implemented in various departments in France, in a bid to cut overall spending. In 2009 some €4.5 billion was spent on the road budget, compared with €3.9 billion planned for 2012. Various local authorities were able to make small cuts in roads budgets until now. However the budget reductions are now becoming more direct as local authorities are seeing their resources fall and social costs rise. Looking ahead through 2012, the outlook is not favourable and for example in Calvados department, three projects for dual carriageways have already been cancelled which is expected to have a corresponding impact on the contracting sector.

Related Content

  • Developments in noise-reducing road surfaces
    February 17, 2012
    Mixtures with special additives are being produced for roads, offering noise reduction and aiding recycling. Patrick Smith reports. Noise-reducing road surfacings have been used in motorway construction for some time. But relatively new are noise-optimised surfacings used on roads in towns that do not follow a standard concept.Road trials with these materials have taken place in Germany since 2007 and have been prioritised due to the European Union Guidelines on the Assessment and Management of Environmenta
  • Poland's big transport plans
    July 6, 2012
    The European Investment Bank (EIB) looks likely to grant Poland a loan of €1.6 billion to carry out several key infrastructure projects. Some of the money will be used to finance the A2 highway from Lodz to Warsaw; Warsaw's southern ring road and a 50km section of the A4 highway to link with Germany.
  • Act FAST when it comes to bridge maintenance, argues Cliff Weston
    February 27, 2017
    Deck waterproofing remains critical to a bridge’s structural integrity for its design life, explains Cliff Weston, director of Stirling Lloyd To properly maintain deck waterproofing there must be a willingness to look at solutions based on whole-life costing rather than just short-term initial costs. There are lessons to be learned from examples of prematurely failed infrastructure due to a focus on initial short-term costs.
  • Bertha ends her Alaskan Way voyage in Seattle
    December 21, 2017
    Seattle's State Route 99 viaduct is coming down. David Arminas was on site. Bertha, the world’s largest diameter earth pressure balance tunnel boring machine, with a cutterhead diameter of 17.5m, is no more. Her 2.7km journey underneath the waterfront area of Seattle finished on April 4 and the power went off for the last time on an extraordinary TBM that had finally completed an extraordinary job. “A small sidewalk job would have had more impact on city traffic than we have had,” says Brian Russell a v