Occitanie

The administrative court invalidates the A69 project: now what?

- 5:22 pm
The A69 construction site nears completion (capture X Ecrins)

The A69 construction site nears completion (capture X Ecrins)

After two years of legal wrangling, the Toulouse Administrative Court ruled that the Toulouse-Castres freeway project was illegal, finding that there was no “imperative reason of overriding public interest”. Other complaints are pending.

On February 27, 2025, the Toulouse Administrative Court handed down its long-awaited decision: the environmental authorization granted to the A69 freeway project linking Toulouse to Castres has been cancelled. The court ruled that there was no “imperative reason of overriding public interest” to justify the environmental impact of this controversial project. This decision, which comes almost two years after work began, represents a major victory for the associations and collectives that have opposed this infrastructure since it was launched.

A long legal battle

As early as March 2023, when the first work began and trees were felled, opponents of the project began their legal battle. France Nature Environnement was the first to take the case to the interim relief judge at the Toulouse administrative court, in an attempt to halt the felling of century-old trees in Vendine (Haute-Garonne). Despite the failure of this first attempt, confirmed a month later by the Conseil d’Etat, the mobilization gathered momentum.
On June 19, 2023, a coalition of 14 organizations lodged an appeal on the merits, challenging the validity of the impact study and, above all, the argument that the freeway would respond to “an imperative reason of major public interest”. This qualification, which was crucial for the project, allowed an exceptional derogation from the Environmental Code.

A project challenged on its foundations

For the project’s defenders, the A69 was intended to “open up” the Castres region, which is currently 1 hr 10 min from Toulouse by national highway. The freeway promised to save between 15 and 25 minutes on this journey, in return for a toll whose amount had not yet been fixed.
Opponents, on the other hand, considered these benefits insufficient in view of the environmental damage. The public rapporteur, Mona Rousseau, supported this position during the hearings, declaring that it was “excessive” to invoke a “real situation of isolation” in the south of the Tarn region.

Construction already well under way

Despite the numerous summary proceedings brought by opponents to suspend work pending a ruling on the merits, the site has continued to advance. At the beginning of February, concession holder Atosca claimed to have “finalized more than 300 million euros, or 65% of the total budget”, and to be maintaining its target of completion by the end of 2025.
“It’s all just talk”, denounced Thomas Digard, spokesman for the La Voie est libre collective, arguing that ‘the pro-A69 strategy consists in saying that everything is going well until the court decision’ to ‘make people believe that the project is too far advanced to backtrack’.

State appeals

Although this decision represents a victory for the opponents, the case is not yet closed. The Ministry of Transport immediately announced that the State would appeal the decision, thus prolonging the legal wrangle.
At the same time, the opponents have also launched other actions, notably on the criminal front with the filing in August 2024 of three complaints with civil party status for “influence peddling”, “illegal destruction” and “illegal taking of interest”. The case is far from over!
This decision by the administrative court marks a major turning point in this conflict, emblematic of the tensions between road infrastructure development and environmental protection, even if the final outcome is still uncertain.

For the CPME: “The blocking of the A69 is an absurd example of the obstacles to economic development”.

 

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