A 950-ton monument moved to Toulouse for the 3rd metro line

A few hundred curious people gathered in front of the memorial, surrounded by a gigantic metal "exoskeleton" to hold it during the move.

"It's huge! When you see the size of the monument, you wonder how they do it", is surprised Gilbert Rumeau, a 70-year-old retiree. Jessica Cefarillo, 30, looking for a job, finds it "incredible" to "see him on wheels like that and move around".

"This monument belongs to the people of Toulouse so all of this, we do it with the people of Toulouse", underlined the mayor of the fourth city of France, Jean-Luc Moudenc (ex-LR), whose image on stage was broadcast on screens giants.

The chosen one launched the operation by pressing a red button: at the signal, the rotation of the platform on which the 15 m high monument was placed began, with the aim of turning it 90 degrees.

The memorial then slipped between the plane trees of the alley and advanced at a snail's speed, before arriving at its destination 35 meters further on.

The operation, which ended around 14:00 p.m., lasted about three hours in total.

"It's a moment that is unique: in France, it has never happened, rarely in the world", welcomed Jean-Michel Lattes, president of the public transport company of the Tisséo agglomeration, citing moving a church to Germany in 2007.

Between the study and works phases, "we had seven months to accomplish the impossible," Thibaut Danho, works engineer at Bouygues Constructions, told AFP, referring to the constraints of the site such as the heritage value of the building. construction and preservation of plane trees.

The operation, the cost of which is estimated at seven million euros, takes place prior to the underground works of the François-Verdier metro station, where the junction of line B and the future line C will take place, and whose expansion could have caused the collapse of the building.

Other solutions, such as its dismantling or its consolidation, were rejected because of "too great risks", according to Tisséo.

The idea of ​​creating a second station, connected by a corridor to the first, was also refused: "it would have been something uncomfortable when the metro is intended to save time", indicated Jean-Luc Moudenc to AFP.

The monument must be put back in place by the same process at the end of the work, scheduled for 2027.

The third metro line in the Toulouse conurbation, 27 km long, should be put into service in 2028.

It will notably serve the Airbus factories and the west of the conurbation.

At the other end, it will reach Labège, in the south-east, a commercial center where many companies are located.