“You have to suffer to be beautiful, it’s an adage that we can apply today», smiles Nathalie Ravier, mayor of Méru (Oise). After more than a year of work, the city center of Méru has received a nice facelift, which today makes it much more pleasant and practical. Even if throughout the duration of the work, everything was not rosy. “Traffic plans have changed a lot, it was necessary to take over the networks which had reached the end of their use, hostile weather, bones found near the churchlists the councilor. But this suffering is rewarded.”
Restore strength to the city center
Started in June 2023, this work had been under consideration since 2020. And was completed at the end of 2024. “We wanted to intervene in a fairly aging city centerjustifies Nathalie Ravier. We also did this for our businesses, which pay the price of large shopping centers and the Internet. We cannot resign ourselves to a life filled with virtuality.»
From the Conti tower to behind the town hall, via the church, the entire micro-town center of Méru has been reviewed. All this was carried out by Philippe Caplet, landscape designer, deputy director of Etudis ménagements. He was present this Thursday, November 14 to show what has been achieved. “Our leitmotif was to restore strength to this city center», he begins as a preamble to the visit.
Green spaces
Thus, four objectives were set from the outset. Give back a real place for pedestriansfirstly, with a more fluid space accessible to people with reduced mobility. To have more vegetationNext. “We suffer from heat islands, in a few years we will be more sheltered when the trees have grown“, he says. In all, forty-three trees were planted. A 20m3 rainwater storage basin was buried. It will be used for automatic watering of plants. Maintain summer activities (market, concerts, etc.) was also important, “so that life in the heart of the city is always possible“. This is the case with large pedestrianized spaces. Finally, it was necessary create attractive spaces to be able to settle down.
At the foot of the Conti tower, the grand staircase has been completely redone. On the ground, the paving stones were extracted, scraped, sawed and re-laid, with dry or grass joints. In total, 5,000 m2 of paving stones were redone. Further down, next to the church, a building which housed the city’s technical services was razed. “It hid a large part of the churchjustifies Philippe Caplet. Today, we can have a real presentation of the building.» Several benches have been installed on this green square, as well as three electric bike charging stations.
Nearly four million euros of work
In front of town hall, the street is now completely closed to traffic. To have a real city center between the church and the town hall. The steps to access the latter have been removed, to regain a certain fluidity. Finally, behind the town hall, a small, more intimate square was designed, with a fountain and several benches. “Like a village square, it can be a good place to live in the summer with the bar-restaurant located next door», Shows the project owner.
The cost of this work amounts in total to €3,775,000project management included. The State, the region and the department contributed to this effort via various subsidies. In the future, network recovery work will still have to be carried out. “But we are going to give traders and local residents a little breathing space before considering other work for the moment.would like to reassure Nathalie Ravier. The sectors envisaged are still under discussion for the intervention schedule.»
