France’s ageing bridge problem highlighted

The recent fatal bridge disaster in the Italian city of Genoa has triggered questions being asked about the state of France’s bridges. And with around 33% of France’s 12,000 or so bridges now known to require repairs, there is an understandable cause for concern.
August 17, 2018 Read time: 1 min
The recent fatal bridge disaster in the Italian city of Genoa has triggered questions being asked about the state of France’s bridges. And with around 33% of France’s 12,000 or so bridges now known to require repairs, there is an understandable cause for concern.


The vast majority of French bridges in need of attention merely require comparatively small repairs or upgrades. But some 7% of the structures are suffering more serious problems and may have to be either completely rebuilt, or demolished and replaced. Meanwhile some construction industry figures in France believe that the proportion of bridges requiring attention could be significantly higher than the official figures as many structures have not been properly assessed.

France’s Transport Ministry is proposing a budget of €1 billion/year be used to repair the bridges in need of work. Without this spending, up to 6% of France’s existing bridges will have to be closed to traffic within 20 years.

Finance & Funding

Related Content

  • Moscow city government to build relief roads and highways
    June 6, 2016
    Moscow’s congestion problems need addressing but there are different solutions that could provide the answer – Eugene Gerden writes Moscow’s city government is considering building relief roads to ease congestion on the city’s key roads and highways. This plan has been revealed by recent statements from Marat Khusnullin, deputy mayor for urban policy and construction of the Moscow city government.
    Read More
  • Russian bypass projects under construction
    October 5, 2018
    The Russian government is starting a major programme of building bypasses around large cities during the current financial year – Eugene Gerden writes The Russian government is starting a massive programme of building bypasses around the country’s biggest cities during this financial year. The aim is to address the problems of traffic jams and speeding traffic on federal routes, according to recent statements by the Russian Presidential Administration and some senior officials from the Ministry of Trans
    Read More
  • Huge investment for Moscow’s motorway routes
    May 1, 2015
    Huge investments being made in building several outbound routes in Moscow and the Moscow region – Eugene Gerden writes. Up to US$20 billion (900 billion Roubles) will be invested in the building of several outbound routes in Moscow and the Moscow region during the next few years, according to an official spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Transport. It is planned that the routes will be built as flyovers above the railroad tracks in the Yaroslavl, Kazan, Riga and Paveletskaya directions of the
    Read More
  • Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh benefiting from major transport investment
    September 9, 2013
    Saudi Arabia is undergoing a series of upgrades to its transport network in a bid to improve Traffic flow rates and boost safety - Mike Woof reports. The massive growth in the use of motor transport worldwide since the start of the 20th century has transformed every country on the planet. But perhaps no country has changed more dramatically than Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading oil producer. At the start of the 20th century Saudi Arabia’s population was small and the country had few industries while it is
    Read More

Highlighted Content