Work on Lot 2 of Line 16 now 83% complete, says Webuild.
WORK on Lot 2 of Line 16 of the future Grand Paris Express driverless metro network is now 83% complete, following the breakthrough of a tunnel boring machine (TBM) into a shaft at Mare du Chanvre in the municipality of Sevran, to the east of Paris.
Lot 2 comprises 11km of the total of 29km of tunnels for Line 16, and work is being undertaken by Webuild and its local partner NGE.
The TBM was launched at the Bel Air site in Chelles at the southern end of Line 16 and has now completed a 5.3km drive northwards to Sevran, where it will be dismantled and removed in preparation of the arrival of a second TBM this autumn.
Working in the opposite direction, the second TBM has so far excavated 4km of its 5.8km drive southwards and is expected to break through into the shaft at Sevran this autumn.
Webuild and NGE are also building four of the 10 stations on Line 16, at Aulnay-sous-Bois, Sevran-Beaudottes, Sevran-Livry and Clichy-Montfermeil.
When completed, Line 16 is expected to carry 200,000 passengers a day, taking 154,000 vehicles off the road a day and avoiding the emission of 52,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.
Webuild says that its diversity initiatives have included employing 55 women on Lot 2, more than any other lot on the Grand Paris Express project, and with women holding senior positions including construction manager, planning manager and monitoring manager.
The contractor has also reduced the environmental impact of the project by using fibre-reinforced concrete tunnel lining segments, reducing the amount of steel required by 50% and improving the strength of the finished tunnel.
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