France - Several motorways without video surveillance following theft of cables

cette semaine

Le Parisien, 09/15/2010 - Cable thieves have struck again! Thirty metres of fibre were stolen in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, in the Landy tunnel, at Saint-Denis on the A1 Motorway. This theft has resulted in putting the CCTV north freeway sector out of use. Suddenly, all information on the A1, A3, but also the A86 between Rosny and Villeneuve la Garenne, and the A104 between Villepinte and Gonesse, are unavailable.
The cables were stolen while the tunnel was closed for renovation and the cameras were not running. At the reopening of the tunnel on Wednesday, several policemen have been deployed to ensure the safety of users, instead of video surveillance, said the prefecture. Examples abound "Instead of having a policeman behind screens, so you have to put several on the ground," this source said, explaining that this had been "very burdensome to implement." The system will be operational again in the coming hours.
These thefts are multiplying on the highways of the Hexagon including Ile-de-France, particularly because of the high resale price of this metal. On August 9, the tunnel under the river-A86 at the height of Fontenay-sous-Bois and Nogent (Val de Marne) had to be closed after the theft of cable making some security systems inoperable. On July 10, theft of cable on the common-A 4 A86 at the height of Joinville (Val-de-Marne), also disrupted the luminous information panels. In late July, other thefts have been committed, this time involving the decommissioning of the mobile slider A 4-A86 in the direction of the province. In the Val d'Oise, on the Highway 15 already deprived of lighting for a year and half, half of the breakdown terminal of the A15 are out of use.