Reserved lanes, pedestrian areas… Anne Hidalgo has ambitions for the Place du Châtelet that are sure to make people react. In an interview with the Sunday newspaper, the socialist mayor of Paris announced her desire to redevelop this nerve center of Parisian traffic in order to reduce the place of cars in favor of pedestrians and soft transport. “It will be the end of the current roundabout” which distributes traffic between the banks of the Seine, the Île de la Cité and the left bank on one side, the rue de Rivoli and the boulevard de Sébastopol on the another, affirms the aedile.
On the west side, in front of the Théâtre du Châtelet, “traffic will be reserved, on a single lane, for buses, taxis, priority vehicles and bicycles”, on the model of the Saint-Paul embankment (IVe), “with vast pedestrian spaces,” says Ms. Hidalgo, whose plans to reduce car space have drawn the ire of motorists for years. On the east side, that of the Théâtre de la Ville, renamed Sarah-Bernhardt for its reopening in September, “the entrance to boulevard Sébastopol will have two lines of traffic, a bus lane and a cycle path” in both directions, explains the mayor .
As for the square itself, where a monument commemorating Napoleon’s victories sits, it will be “enlarged and decluttered” with “removable trays and bleachers” and a new paving “sober and respectful of heritage”, she promises.
These facilities, the cost of which is estimated at 2 million euros, will be completed in the spring of 2024, in time for the Olympic Games, assures Anne Hidalgo. Asked about the reopening at the beginning of September at the Place du Châtelet of the Théâtre de la Ville – after seven years of work which caused the final bill to explode, estimated at around forty million euros -, Anne Hidalgo “assumes” a project “badly started for lack of of a sufficiently tight piloting”.
The former PS presidential candidate also plans to “remove the gates” from the square next to the Saint-Jacques tower, a 16th century jewel, to “enjoy its freshness all the time”. His plan to remove the gates from the square adjoining Notre-Dame, one of the oldest in the capital, is already causing controversy. Nearly 50,000 people have already signed a petition demanding the restoration of the square to the same.
“We organized a consultation and an international competition which unanimously designated a winning project, validated by all the heritage authorities of the country”, argues the mayor.