Economics: Seine-Nord Europe canal: a new partnership with Europe

A canal linking the Seine to northern Europe is currently underway in northern France. Although actual construction is not slotted to begin until 2008, French public authorities and the private sector are finalizing the project’s technical, financial and environmental aspects to ensure the project’s smooth flow.

When drawn on a map of France, the future Seine-Nord Europe canal certainly doesn’t look like much: just a blue line connecting two waterways. Yet the canal, projected to flow from Janville, north of Compiègne, to the Dunkirk-Escaut Canal, east of Arleux, is hardly a new concept: its genesis dates back to 1975. The small pencil stroke traces the future corridor connecting the Seine and Oise rivers to the northern France basin, providing a waterway link between France’s inland waterways and those of northern Europe.

Romantic images of barges lazily floating down bucolic canals are certainly not part of the plans devised by the Ministry of Transport and Voies Navigables de France (VNF) *. The Seine-Nord Europe canal project is located along the North-Amsterdam/Paris transport corridor which, according to European Commission estimates, will record an 80% increase in traffic by 2020. In France, the northern corridor dispatches some 15% of the goods transiting by road through the country. The international commerce generated represents one third of France’s volume of foreign trade (in tonnes).

In practical terms, France is currently tracing the 105-kilometre link intended to transport some 32 million tonnes of goods annually using next-generation shipping vessels: the equivalent of 25% of the traffic currently recorded on the A1 motorway connecting Paris to Lille, or one heavy goods vehicle every 20 seconds.

The dimensions required to ensure that the canal can accommodate large-sized convoys are astounding. With a surface length of 54 meters and a depth of 4.5 meters, the canal must also include 6 to 10 locks in addition to the numerous bridges built along its course to provide crossing points from one end of the canal to the other. But it’s a worthy investment since the project will allow haulage contractors to transit their goods at lesser cost.

Safe and environmentally beneficial, inland waterway transport consumes very little energy: with the same amount of fuel, goods can be transported 5.5 times further than by road, and twice as far as by rail. This key feature goes hand in hand with low atmospheric and noise pollution. In addition, the uncongested traffic flow on waterways further increases transport reliability. As a viable alternative that can help limit the rapid development of road transport, inland waterways represent considerable economic and environmental stakes. In fact, François Bordy, CEO of VNF, emphasizes the notion that the “the value of the waterway is enhanced by its multi-functional purpose, including hydraulic management, hydroelectricity, water transport, flood management and tourism”.

Millions of cubic meters of soil will need to be shovelled before the canal can accommodate 4,400-ton vessels. Actual construction work has not yet begun and the project is not expected to be completed until 2012, after four years of work. The final course is currently being finalized and preliminary consultations with the populations concerned are scheduled to take place in the upcoming months. Financing for the Seine-Nord Europe link (a project selected from among some thirty others in the framework of the Trans-European Transport Network, or TEN-T) could take the form of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) contract, with the private sector contributing up to 20 or 25% of the 3.3-billion-euro budget.

According to the studies carried out by VNF in 1998 and 1999, an estimated 9,760 new jobs will be generated directly by the Seine-Nord Europe canal’s construction phase, for a 5-year period approximately. The completed canal will also promote the development of new logistical and tourist activities. By 2050, the project will be going full steam ahead and some 35,000 to 45,000 people will be directly or indirectly employed thanks to the canal. Bruno Gimmig

* Voies Navigables de France (VNF) manages, runs, adapts and develops the largest waterway network in Europe (6,700 km of converted canals and rivers). A public establishment supervised by the French Ministry of Equipment, Transport, Territorial Development, Tourism and Maritime Affairs, VNF works hand in hand with both institutional partners and waterway users, contributing to all environmental conservation and sustainable development policies.

Website:
http://www.seine-nord-europe.com/

Last updated: 15.03.2006