The Legacy and Sustainability plan for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games — 44 • ELANCOURT Located 35 km from the centre of Paris, Élancourt Hill has a potential reach that extends beyond Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines. From the late 19th century through to the end of the 1950s, the site operated as an open pit millstone grit quarry, while from the 1960s through to the late 2000s, it was a breaker’s yard and an illegal dumping ground. The site owes its current appearance to backfill work carried out using mainly earth and rubble from building Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, as well as two household waste sites. The 52 ha site is part of the greater Saint-Quentin- en-Yvelines area. Reaching 231 metres, the summit is the highest point in the Greater Paris region. Though the soil was brought from other locations, nature gradually began to take over this abandoned post-industrial site. Today, the site is used by mountain bikers, walkers and runners. The Élancourt Hill project strives to ensure the site blends in with its surroundings and help regenerate existing ecological environments by adapting the landscape. Successfully making these changes hinges on protecting the trees along the edge of the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines plateau (listed woodland south-west of the bottom of the hill) and changing the dynamics of the local vegetation to diversify ecological habitats and their unique features to promote open herbaceous environments. The herbaceous area at the top of the hill will be expanded to recreate a habitat for protected species, which will coexist peacefully alongside people using the hill for sports and recreational purposes after the Games: • redeveloping mountain bike trails using existing tracks for the 2024 Games, as well as French Cycling Federation competitions and championships after the Games; • creating additional platforms, training structures and an area for Paris 2024’s short- term needs that will be shared with local residents after the Games to meet their needs and expectations after the Games, while ensuring the temporary structures are a reasonable size (10% of the site will be landscaped); • providing users with enhanced access to the hill (including where there are community gardens at present) and improving links between the site and the surrounding area. © – Thomas Barwick/Getty Images
Paris24 Legacy and Sustainability Page 43 Page 45