At the invitation of VNF’s Bassin de Seine et Loire aval territorial division, and in the presence of Sophie Primas, Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, Pawel Wojciechowski, Coordinator of the North Sea-Rhine-Mediterranean European Corridor, Josiane Simon, Ile de France Regional Councillor, Philippe Jumeaucourt, Mayor of Méricourt and Cécile Avezard, Director General of VNF, the members of the Seine-Scheldt Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) took part in the inauguration of the locks at Méricourt (Yvelines) on Friday 11 October.
Built in the 1960s and located 60km from Paris, these two strategic locks handle more than 250 boats a week, including large 180-metre river convoys and cruise liners. Since 2020, they have been undergoing major extension and renovation work, with no interruption to navigation. This inauguration is therefore a major new step in the development of the Seine-Scheldt wide-gauge European inland waterways network.
The project, costing €92m including VAT, received funding from the European Commission (€34.5m as part of the Connecting Europe Facility) and the Ile-de-France Region (€15.7m as part of the Contrat de Plan Etat-Région).
After the inauguration, the representatives of the IGC held their quarterly meeting on the premises of the Ministry of Transport in La Défense (Hauts-de-Seine) to review the progress of studies and works on the entire Seine-Scheldt European inland waterways network.
