A bitter controversy is raging between environmentalists and the constructors of the Zaragoza–Bordeaux autoroute along the Vallée d'Aspe. This has pitted many residents of the valley (and nearby regions of Spain), who claim to be hard pressed from lack of livelihood, against ecologists from elsewhere, in a protracted battle which has been running since 1990. The hi-tech tunnel under the Col du Somport is now an accomplished fact and the focus of the struggle has shifted to lobbying for the rehabilitation of the long-abandoned trans-frontier railway to carry high-speed trains and freight, and the simultaneous limiting in width of the monstrous proposed six-lane highway which would virtually flatten the Vallée d'Aspe.
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