Bègles train station stop on tram line C, September dilapidated council blocks which are part of the landscape. A panorama on hold: built in the 1960s for railway workers’ families, the Dorat estate, this vast real estate complex of 310 homes, is promised several renovation and demolition-reconstruction operations which are the subject of a public meeting on Wednesday July 3 (1)
Bègles train station stop on tram line C, September dilapidated council blocks which are part of the landscape. A panorama on hold: built in the 1960s for railway workers’ families, the Dorat estate, this vast real estate complex of 310 homes, is promised several renovation and demolition-reconstruction operations which are the subject of a public meeting on Wednesday July 3 (1).
The rehabilitation of the buildings, which are now shared by two social landlords on either side of the tram line, involves different urban planning approaches. In the north, ICF Habitat, a historic subsidiary of the SNCF, is only demolishing building G, or 30 dwellings. The lessor is rehabilitating 140 dwellings in buildings B, E and F and building 140 new mixed dwellings, available for rental as well as social and free access.
190 additional housing units
To the south, near the Dorat lake, Gironde Habitat is undertaking a major demolition-reconstruction operation: the buildings (140 housing units) will be destroyed as the new constructions progress, no longer arranged in a bar but in a “plot” (220 housing units, the 140 rental units reconstituted and 80 others in open access). The balance is largely positive for Dorat: 190 additional housing units produced in a context of notorious tension on the collective real estate market.
“In Bègles, there are 1,000 applications for social housing pending and a challenge for the middle classes to access property,” adds Mayor Clément Rossignol Puech, quick to “thank the landlords for the renovation” to come, praising “very high-quality projects”. The investments are commensurate: 8.4 million euros for the renovation of the ICF Habitat apartments alone, 26.9 million for the entire Gironde Habitat operation, including parking, roads and green spaces.
Bridge
Commercial units will be set up at the foot of building B and a footbridge will be thrown over the railway line, in the extension of rue Durcy. The redesign of the district does not stop there: a multi-storey car park is planned in place of the park-and-ride at Bègles station, which has now been condemned due to occupations by travellers. Finally, the SNCF and its works council, the Casi, are continuing the reconstruction of the Gattebourse sports facilities that were sold, on the Bordeaux side. The building permit for a multi-purpose hall “is currently being processed”, relays Clément Rossignol Puech. This will be followed, he lists, by “two tennis courts”, the “Basque pelota fronton” and the reconstruction of the handball gymnasium.
The new Dorat is for tomorrow: Gironde Habitat is starting the project “mid-2025”, followed by ICF “mid-2026”, for deliveries “in 2028”. In addition to the real estate works, there will be those of Railway developments south of Bordeaux (AFSB) which, for the needs of the Metropolitan RER and some Bordeaux-Toulouse high-speed rail line here involve the installation of a base camp and the construction of an additional track at the level of Bègles..