After almost three years closed at night due to a unilateral decision by France, the Bielsa-Aragnouet tunnel, one of the three border crossings in the Aragonese Pyrenees with the neighboring country, will once again be officially open to road traffic 24 hours a day from the end of week. Good news for a channel that between January and September registered more than 315,000 users, a figure that exceeds those registered before the pandemic.
The French authorities have published this Monday the order that puts an end to the night closure – from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. – decreed in January 2021 by the French prefect of the Hautes-Pyrénées (similar to the Government delegate) under the argument of controlling the “terrorist threat.” ” and the control of illegal immigration. That decision, which emanated from Paris and was also temporarily applied at other border posts, has during this time generated inconveniences for transporters and residents of the affected areas.
“(The measure) will allow the reactivation of communications and traffic in this cross-border area, something in high demand in recent years, especially by cross-border workers in the region of Sobrarbe (Spain) and the valleys of Nestes and Louron (France)” The Government Delegation in Aragon stated in a note.
The new guideline to recover night traffic and keep it open 24 hours a day will come into force on October 21 at 6:00 a.m. in the morning. That time and day has been set taking into account the maintenance work on the ventilation system that is being carried out in the infrastructure.
But beyond the official date, the total opening could still take a few more days, since it is also necessary to install a new automatic incident detection system to replace the previous one, which dates back to 2012. Thanks to its 65 cameras ready to Throughout its 3,000 meters of length, this technology allows us to know if a vehicle is stopped inside the tunnel or if there is smoke.
Of course, the decree will not modify the restriction on the passage of trucks at night, a decision adopted by common agreement by the two countries involved with the aim of preserving the rest of the residents of the towns located at the foot of the road.
According to the Government Delegation, the revocation of the partial closure is the result of conversations between the Ministries of the Interior of Spain and France. In recent months, pressure from the Spanish Government to normalize the situation had intensified, and the reopening of Bielsa was one of the topics discussed during the last bilateral summit held in January of this year in Barcelona.
The Government of Aragon, on which the road leading to the international crossing depends, has also insisted on the need to reopen 24 hours due to the negative effects that the measure had on tourism and on the lives of citizens, and even the European Commission had urged Paris not to prolong the lockdown measure any further.
Today’s announcement adds to that of last week, when Paris communicated its intention to reopen on October 30 four of the border crossings on the borders with the Basque Country and Navarra that it also closed in 2021.
The Prefecture of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques specified that the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, informed his Spanish counterpart, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, of the decision, to whom he noted that the reopening is due to “the progress made with the mixed patrols in those zone”.
This new joint operational device, according to the Government delegation of that department, will continue in the coming months and “will allow maintaining a level of control of the border space equivalent to that which exists now.”
