Releasing European hamsters bred as part of a scheme to save the species from extinction.
Western Strasbourg bypass: setting an environmental example
From the infrastructure’s design and route layout, to how construction work was organised, the environment was the project’s key concern throughout.
— The A355 is the first infrastructure project to be completed in France under the provisions of the country’s 2016 Law for the Reconquest of Biodiversity and was designed to achieve no net loss of biodiversity. The offsets, most of which were put in place before construction even started, concern an area of over 1,300 hectares, which is nearly five times more than the area occupied by the completed infrastructure. The offsetting measures focus on the endangered European hamster. VINCI Autoroutes consulted local farmers to ensure the rodent would be able to thrive again with suitable crops grown on 1,000 hectares of land. Over 1,000 European hamsters will have been released into their natural habitat by 2023 as part of a breeding programme conducted with scientific and non-profit partners.
ECOLOGICAL TRANSPARENCY
One hundred and thirty wildlife crossings were created over and under the motorway, an average of about one every 200 metres. That ratio is approximately 20 times higher than on other French motorways. VINCI Autoroutes also took measures on an unprecedented scale to protect water resources, creating 25 retention ponds and reconfiguring several stream and river channels to return them to their original beds and regulate the water flow, while fostering the development of biodiversity. In response to the region’s particular concern regarding climate risks, the hydraulic structures were designed to withstand 1 in 100-year rainfall.
130
ecological transparency structures over 24 km.
1,000 hectares
of suitable habitat specially designed
to reintroduce the European hamster.
When he opened the A355 on 11 December 2021, French Prime Minister Jean Castex pointed out that the new motorway “would significantly improve air quality across the entire Strasbourg area” by re-routing the through-traffic that used to congest the A35 city motorway, adding that an “unprecedented level of biodiversity offsets had been planned and brought to fruition”. In his “road advocacy”, he highlighted that roads are “essential to the nation’s development and regional planning” and that thanks to the expansion of decarbonised travel, they were no longer the “enemy of sustainability and ecological transition”.