For the third year in a row, Groupe Moniteur organised BIM d’Or, an event that rewards the best BIM and digital modelling initiatives by French companies. After being listed, our project to renovate the five-star Mandarin Oriental Hotel in London was awarded a prize at the ceremony held on September 19.
In what way was the BIM process deployed in this project an innovation? In this complex project – prestigious establishment with stringent requirements, heritage building with an intricate layout and structure, work on a busy site, and other challenges – BIM deployment facilitated technical validation and enabled painstaking and comprehensive spatial coordination. As a result, the teams were able to look forward to a major reduction in uncertainty during the construction phase thanks to streamlined management of timetables and the flow of people coming and going, particularly on the client’s side.
In all, 31 out of 130 projects were listed, including 8 VINCI projects. Among the 10 prizewinners, VINCI Construction Grands Projets joined VINCI Facilities, winner of the project of the year prize (BIM d’Or in the Operations/Maintenance category) and VINCI Autoroutes, winner in the Infrastructure category. View the complete list of prizewinners here (in French).
The construction works, the addition of 65 kilometers of third lanes and the construction of 2 kilometers of 4 bidirectional tunnels, are estimated to last 5 years and will be carried out by a joint-venture consisting of VINCI Construction Grands Projets / VINCI Construction Terrassement (50%) and Conconcreto (50%). The whole infrastructure will be operated and maintained by the concessionaire, formed by VINCI Highways (50%), Constructora Conconcreto (25%) and Industrial Conconcreto (25%).
In July 2015, VINCI has announced a strategic partnership with Constructora Conconcreto, a leading Colombian construction and real estate development company. The partnership involves VINCI’s acquisition of a 20% stake in Constructora Conconcreto via a reserved capital increase. VINCI’s ambition is to put down long-term roots in Colombia, one of the most dynamic countries in South America. For about a decade, the country has regularly recorded annual GDP growth in excess of 4%. The construction sector is particularly promising, with volume expected to increase by 5% annually in coming years.
Leading worldwide shipping group CMA CGM, which has held the concession for the port of Kingston since 1 July 2016, selected the joint venture to carry out the project.
The contract covers, first and foremost, the refurbishment, reinforcement and upgrade to seismic standards of 1,200 metres of quays. The joint venture will also carry out dredging work in the access channel. The projects will be completed in 25 months. The operation will increase the alongside depth of the quays to enable them to handle container ships of larger capacity.
Coming a few days after the opening of the expanded Panama Canal, which accommodates the world’s largest container ships, the contract to extend and refurbish the port of Kingston is a strategic move for the region. The port of Kingston is ideally located near the Panama Canal at the crossroads between the North/South and East/West sea lanes and will thus become one of the three main container terminals in the Caribbean.
This contract marks further cooperation between VINCI and CMA CGM. In 2008, VINCI handed over the high-rise building designed by architect Zaha Hadid in Marseille that now houses the head office of CMA CGM.
CMA CGM will have the benefit of VINCI’s experience in Jamaica, where the VINCI Group has operated for nearly three decades and where VINCI Construction Grands Projets notably built several sewer and water treatment structures over the past 15 years.
The works, entrusted to the joint venture and amounting to €496m, are part of the extension of RER line E towards the west of Paris (Eole). The works will start in the summer of 2016 and will continue for 61 months. The operation will mobilise 700 construction workers at the peak of activity. It requires four million hours of labour with more than 300,000 hours that will be carried out under work-integration programmes.
With this worksite, VINCI Construction confirms its expertise in management of major projects and its know-how in underground works and foundations.
A complex structure under an emblematic site: the CNIT
The operation covers building the new La Défense station under the CNIT dome, a highly technical project that entails building an underground cathedral while supporting the existing structures and ensuring operational continuity of the site. All the CNIT offices, shops and hotel must continue to function normally throughout the duration of the works.
Apart from the underground structural work beneath the CNIT itself, the company will also be building one kilometre of tunnels, a 40m-deep and 15m-diameter shaft and a large number of underground pedestrian corridors enabling connections between the RER E and A lines, the L and U lines of the Transilien and the T2 Tramway.
A huge technical feat in the heart of the La Défense business district
The major challenge of the worksite is that it has to be executed in the dense and complex urban environment of La Défense, the works requiring the excavation of 350,000 cu. m. of rubble. An ambitious project that opens the way to the Grand Paris Express network
Extension of the RER E line will significantly reduce travel time for thousands of Paris region residents and thereby improve their everyday lives. Extending the E line and building the new CNIT-La Défense station will provide commuters with better quality of service and connections with other RER lines and the future Grand Paris Express network.
This new construction project comes in the wake of other operations already conducted by VINCI in Europe’s largest business district. In December last year, the Group announced construction of Trinity, an innovative new skyscraper on which works will be completed in the second half of 2018.
For more information about Eole: www.rer-eole.fr
The Femern Link Contractors joint venture has signed on the 30 May with the Danish government *contracts in Copenhagen for the design and build of the world’s longest immersed road and rail tunnel, the Fehmarnbelt link between Denmark and Germany.
The joint venture has won three contracts, two contracts covering construction of the immersed tunnel and the tunnel element factory that will manufacture the precast tunnel elements and a contract covering the building of the portal structures, toll buildings, bridges and ramps. The three contracts have a combined value of €3.4 billion.
The joint venture comprises VINCI Construction Grands Projets (lead company for the two tunnel contracts), Per Aarsleff Holding (lead company for the portal contract), Solétanche-Bachy International, CFE., Wayss & Freytag Ingenieurbau, Max Bögl Stiftung & Co, BAM Infra and BAM International.
The joint venture has appointed Dredging International (DEME Group), as dragging subcontractor for the tunnel contracts and COWI, as consultant for all three contracts.
The 18 km immersed tunnel connecting Denmark’s Lolland Falster region with Germany’s Schleswig Holstein region will be the world’s longest immersed road and rail tunnel. It will shorten the journey between the German and Danish coasts to just 10 minutes by car and 7 minutes by train compared to the current travel time of one hour by ferry or a 160 km detour via the Danish region of Jutland by car.
The Fehmarnbelt tunnel project is one of Europe’s largest infrastructure projects to date. It will foster trade and tourism in Northern Europe.
*These contracts are conditional: final and binding contracts are signed with the successful contractors, but construction work will begin after the German construction permits are implemented.
Find out more about the project (including high res pictures and videos downloadable): www.femern.com
The President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and the President of the French Republic, François Hollande, attended the official signing ceremony on 17 April 2016. The client, the National Authority for Tunnels, demonstrated renewed confidence in the joint venture, which has been building the metro system for North Africa’s largest urban area since 1981.
The new €1.1 billion, 67-month contract covers civil engineering for Phase 3 of Line 3, including 17.7 km of new line and 15 stations (eight underground, five elevated and two at ground level). The works will require construction of a new tunnel under the Nile. Once completed, Line 3 will increase the overall length of the Cairo metro system to 100 km and serve five million passengers daily. Work will start in the residential and administrative parts of the capital, including Zamalek Island, and end in the city’s densely populated and highly urbanised northern and southern districts.
The project will generate about 5,000 jobs and continue the longstanding French-Egyptian cooperation in underground works. It will also offer French SMEs a large number of opportunities. In the previous phase of the project, handed over in 2014, the joint venture called on more than 600 French SMEs as suppliers and subcontractors.
Driven by strong economic and population growth, Cairo is now North Africa’s largest city. The urban area has 16 million inhabitants and a very high population density of 73,500 people per km2. Automobile traffic has become highly congested. The expansion of the Cairo metro will help to efficiently and effectively regulate traffic and substantially reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
In addition, the joint venture is also working on Phase 4a of Line 3, which will extend the system towards the eastern part of the city. The contract was signed in February 2015 and handover is set for the end of 2018.
This contract, worth over 145 million € (100 million pounds) covers design and construction of a 1,200 metres incrementally launched bridge over the Forth river estuary and 2-kilometre access roads on either side of the bridge. The structure will provide a link between two major arteries to the north and south of the Forth river and will relieve congestion in the town of Kincardine, 40 kilometres northwest of Edinburgh. The project should also satisfy environmental and ecological concerns.
Work will begin in June 2006 and will last 29 months.
These expansion projects, carried out within the framework of the concession held by VINCI Airports, the VINCI Group’s airport subsidiary, in partnership with Muhibbah, double the capacity of the two airports from 5 to 10 million passengers per year. The investments, amounting to more than $100 million in the 2013-2016 period, are designed to enable the airports to accommodate substantial air traffic growth: over the past 20 years, the number of passengers has increased 10-fold, driven by the country’s very dynamic economy and tourism sector.
Developing new destinations and services
To continue to expand traffic, VINCI Airports works to promote new destinations, notably in India and the Philippines. To better serve its growing business traveller clientele, VINCI Airports opened a 1,400 m2 business lounge at the Phnom Penh airport. It is run according to the standards of Asia’s best airports.
Works in occupied premises
VINCI Construction Grands Projets, the Group subsidiary dedicated to major structures, initiated the expansion works in 2013 and carried them out in the terminals, which remained open throughout the project, without disrupting their operation. The projects also used state-of-the-art BIM (Building Information Modeling) technology to improve safety performance and construction schedule compliance.
The architecture of the Phnom Penh airport is a fairly classical example of modern capital city design, but the Siem Reap airport, near the Angkor temples, a UNESCO World Heritage site, takes inspiration from Cambodian tradition.
This new package (number 1122), worth €45 million, calls for 700 metres of blast-tunnelling in 45 months right in the city centre.
VINCI Construction Grands has already contributed to this construction project with package number 1103. On November 11 at 11:11 AM, VINCI Construction Grands Projets celebrated with MTR by opening a blasted tunnel section at the Hon Keng site.
The Group presents its subsidaries’ expertises & projects: Entrepose, Sogea-Satom, Soletanche Bachy/Menard and VINCI Construction Grands Projets. Take a look at our offer in the mining activities: from concept to start-up, our comprehensive construction offer.
