WHAT AWAITS US IN 2025 2/5: tramway, convention center, wind turbines… a year of titanic construction sites

Laying the rails, an important step in Montpellier. Midi Libre – GIACOMO ITALIANO

The end, soon, of municipal mandates announces the completion of many projects, such as in Montpellier, Nîmes or Le Grau-du-Roi. Others will open, like the future floating wind farm. A brief overview, not exhaustive…

Perhaps, in the coming years, it will be difficult to list the major projects that are coming up in the region. The budgetary constraints that will now be imposed on local authorities risk slowing down their investment projects, a slowdown that many predict will be detrimental to economic activity. But we are not there yet and 2025 will still mark the beginning, continuation or end of major projects.

1- These projects that are nearing completion

The political calendar sets the pace for construction sites. Before the start of the 2026 municipal campaign, many cities and inter-municipalities should see projects come to fruition, both to show that promises are being kept and to make people forget the constraints generated by the work.

This is particularly the case in Montpellier, where the construction of tram line 5 between Clapiers and Lavérune, the extension of line 1 to the Sud de France station and the end of the first bustram line should be inaugurated next December. But there is still work to be done, or on the tarmac, in particular to complete tram line 5 since according to the elected official in charge of mobility, Julie Frêche, “10% of the rails on the northern sector and 50% on the western sector remain to be laid”.The stations will gradually emerge from the ground, and in the air, the tension line should appear in the first quarter. At the same time, the circulation space will finally be developed. Tick, tock…

In Nîmes, it is Jean-Paul Fournier's last major project that must be completed. Adjoining the Musée de la Romanité, the Palais des congrès H2 – a name inspired by its architecture – should be delivered at the end of 2025. Its 10,000 m² of space should allow it to accommodate up to 700 conference participants and thus contribute to the attractiveness of the city. “It is a real technical feat, due to its location in the heart of the city, and due to the gigantism of the project and its unusual form which fits into the existing structure”,summarized the architect Hervé Thomas, assuring however “to be on schedule”. One construction site will chase another: the construction of a new high-end conservatory designed by the architect Rudy Ricciotti will then begin, on Place des Carmes.

A modern, H-shaped architecture for the future Palais des congrès de Nîmes. Midi Libre – MiKAEL ANISSET

Other cities hope to complete projects on time. Rodez hopes to open the stalls of the 14 merchants in its Baltard-style covered market “in September” ; Sète intends to deliver the 300 spaces in its highly controversial underground car park on Place Aristide-Briant “by the end of 2025“; Le Grau-du-Roi wants to complete its Rambla this year, an avenue inspired by its namesake in Barcelona that will connect the maritime channel to the new eco-district, the last stage of the local urban renewal plan.

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In Sète, 300 spaces will be available under the Aristide-Briand square. Philippe Malric

2- The construction sites that continue

A titanic construction site opened in Frontignan in 2022 and will continue until 2026. The decontamination of the soil of the former Mobil refinery, which ceased its activity in 2011, should then allow the development of a new district around a multimodal hub. “We are about halfway there, in accordance with the provisional schedule”, the site manager had established last June. To be continued.

A mobile tent allows for soil decontamination work. Midi Libre Archive

Still in Hérault, the Department is continuing the last section of the Lien, this northern bypass of Montpellier which should connect, at the end of 2027-beginning of 2028, the A750 to the A9. An important step has been taken with the installation of a bridge over the Mosson.

In the Gard, at Nîmes, underground, the hydraulic development of the Uzès and Limites cadereaux tunnels using tunnel boring machines should limit the impacts of a possible Mediterranean episode by 2027.

3- The construction sites that will open

These are the most important of the construction sites in the former Languedoc-Roussillon, and yet the least visible and those that will be completed the fastest….

At sea, the adventure of floating offshore wind is finally coming to fruition, 10 years after its infancy. The titanic floats are being completed on land, the turbines and blades are ready. The two experimental parks of three 185m steel giants will be assembled and erected around fifteen kilometers from the coast. One, off the coast of Port-Leucate (11) and Port-Barcarès (66), the EFGL project (floating wind turbines in the Gulf of Lion) in the spring; the other, the EolMed project, off the coast of Port-la-Nouvelle and Gruissan (Aude), at the end of the year.

These six 60MW wind turbines in total will produce enough to supply 90,000 people with electricity. Above all, these pilot farms will serve as a test for the commercial fields that will arrive offshore over the next 25 years with dozens of wind turbines in an area between Agde and Port-la-Nouvelle.

In the Pyrénées-Orientales, more than ten years of work will begin on the banks of the Agly, between Rivesaltes and Le Barcarès, to also limit the risk of flooding. The first phase should notably allow the river bed to be widened by 30 metres on each side.

4- Construction sites in preparation ?

What will happen to the major road projects ? In Montpellier, as in Nîmes, supporters of a western bypass are hoping for new administrative progress that would allow the first spades to be broken by 2026 or 2027. But the possible legal setback on the A69, in the Tarn, is reinvigorating its opponents. Many elected officials also hope that the Montpellier-Perpignan high-speed line project will continue its course for a launch in 2029. A more distant horizon.

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