Vallee D’Aspe Victory

The last action weekend at the Vallee D'Aspe took place on the 22nd/23rd May. A week later the government announced that it would not be building the road through the Pyrenees which has faced 15 years of resistance, and will restore the rail link instead.

3000 people formed a human chain around the soon to be open bridge and lit a huge bonfire, keeping the road shut throughout the night. Actions have been helped recently by geological processes getting their own back, with rock falls on freshly laid tarmac keeping other parts of the road scheme closed.

The decision to abandon the project, which runs through the last remaining habitat of the European brown bear , came after spending £200 million on it, and was partly catalysed by the recent fire in the Mont Blanc tunnel which killed 45 people.