Conditional
After 48 days of public consultations, a major milestone has been reached for the long-debated A31bis motorway project in the Thionville region. On 10 August, the commission overseeing the public inquiry approved the bypass initiative, albeit with certain reservations.
The A31bis aims to relieve congestion on the existing A31 motorway, heavily used by the tens of thousands of cross-border commuters who live in France and work in Luxembourg. More than 60,000 vehicles travel daily along its busiest stretch between Thionville and Luxembourg, regularly causing long bottlenecks. Projections indicate traffic will increase by around 30% by 2050.
Key elements include widening the northern section of the A31 from two to three lanes in each direction between Thionville and the Luxembourg border, and constructing a new southern bypass around Thionville, featuring a tunnel beneath Florange that will connect to the A30 motorway.
The favourable opinion is a necessary step before the project can be officially declared of public utility, a prerequisite for breaking ground. However, the commission's support is conditional: authorities must address concerns about pollution monitoring, the impact on local communities, and specific technical aspects such as the design of a planned motorway interchange.
Originally conceived nearly three decades ago, the project is estimated at over 1 billion euros. Funding will be provided by a private concessionaire, which will recoup its investment through motorway tolls. For cross-border commuters, that means roughly 4 euros per day for a Thionville-Luxembourg journey, or nearly 8 euros per day for those using the tunnel from Richemont.
The commission concluded that the A31bis would "significantly improve journey reliability" by reducing travel times by as much as 35%. But it also highlighted a key shortcoming: the new road is unlikely to encourage a meaningful shift towards public transport, raising the possibility that the route could again become congested by 2050.
30 years to approve a road. 1 billion euros to build it. Tolls for the people who drive it. And by 2050, it might already be full again. The commute from France to Luxembourg has always been a compromise. This just makes it a more expensive one.