In the Aspe Valley, the road washed away by bad weather could reopen in January

This valley had been hit by severe weather, with torrents of water and mud destroying twenty-five houses, numerous vehicles and part of the RN134, the access road to Spain via the Somport tunnel.

Work to "fill this gap" will begin next week, the authorities assured on Wednesday from the Pau prefecture. This will involve "reinforcing the embankments and filling in at least 20.000 m3 of earth" before rebuilding the roadway, estimated Francis Larrivière, deputy director of the Interdepartmental Roads Directorate.

The reopening of traffic in January "seems to us to be a realistic and credible deadline", insisted the prefect Julien Charles, even though the months of December and January "are not the most recommended for road works", in this mountainous area exposed to natural hazards such as bad weather, landslides or snowfall.

The cost of the operation is, at this stage, estimated at one million euros, entirely financed by the State, owner of the road.

On the Spanish side, in recent weeks, elected officials from the Autonomous Community of Aragon and the Provincial Council of Huesca, the country's closest neighbours, had asked France to "do everything possible" to reopen the road "as soon as possible".

"In a normal work procedure, we would have spread things out more," concedes the prefect of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, who has given priority to "the desire to reopen as quickly as possible" this border axis between France and Spain, on which an average of more than 1.200 vehicles circulate each day, including nearly 500 heavy goods vehicles.

These trucks must now move to the ends of the Pyrenees mountain range, via the motorway accesses of Biriatou (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) or Perthus (Pyrénées-Orientales).