Linking the Peloponnese to mainland Greece via the Strait of Corinth was a dream that many projects failed to achieve until the construction of the Charilaos Trikoupis (Rion-Antirion) cable-stayed bridge, a major technical achievement. Unique technical means were leveraged to create a span, 2,883 metres long, that would withstand extreme conditions. Accordingly, it is resistant to earthquakes of a magnitude of 7 on the Richter scale, winds of up to nearly 250 kilometres an hour, and the collision impact of a 180,000-tonne tanker moving at 16 knots. Some people say that the bridge would be the safest place in the region in the event of a strong earthquake. And motorists can now cross the strait in five minutes, instead of the 45 minutes required by the ferry.
Construction of the Cairo metro began in 1981 and hasn’t really stopped since. This collaborative project is part of a regional development program: the Cairo metro is an urban rail network that serves the Egyptian capital beset with traffic congestion day and night. This was the first metro construction project on the African continent. We’ve contributed to the construction of three metro lines; Line 3 is partially in operation, and its extensions will be delivered in 2018. Generally, each station includes three levels: ticket counters; an intermediate level for technical services; and platforms.
VINCI Construction Grands Projets was mandated by Tuc Rail to build the Liefkenshoek rail link to ease the flow of freight traffic in the port of Antwerp. This public-private partnership (PPP) contract, which has a 42-year term, called for the design, funding, construction, and maintenance of a dual railway infrastructure 16.2 kilometres long.
To be more specific, the project called for a backfilled rail platform (4.76 km) with several concrete structures, an open-trench and cut-and-cover section (4.27 km), upgrades to the existing underwater Beveren tunnel to comply with current standards (1.2 km), and construction of two parallel tunnels, to be bored concurrently, each 5.97 kilometres long running under the Kanaaldock and the Escaut river.
This infrastructure was designed to connect the north and south shores of the port of Antwerp and enable freight flow under the canal and the Escaut river.
Australia is endowed with vast, offshore natural gas reserves; as a result, it has attracted many global oil companies that are investing in huge projects. The Wheatstone project, located near Onslow in northwestern Australia, is one of those huge investment projects. The objective is to build infrastructure to liquefy natural gas for commercial purposes. Following several success stories in this sector over the past 30 years, VINCI Construction Grands Projet and Entrepose Contracting were asked to provide engineering, supply logistics, and construction services for two double-walled storage tanks for liquefied natural gas (LNG), each with a capacity of 150,000 cubic metres and two storage tanks for condensates, each with a capacity of 120,000 cubic metres.
The Tideway Scheme consists of designing and building a system for wastewater and stormwater transfer and storage in central London. No less than 32 kilometres of tunnels will be necessary to increase the capacity of the existing network. This ambitious project aims to intercept wastewater and stormwater and divert them into treatment plants to prevent effluents into the River Thames.
VINCI Construction Grands Projets, in a joint venture with Costain Limited, and Bachy Soletanche Ltd have been invited to participate in the construction of the East works package, one of the three making up the Tideway project. This package will connect Chambers Wharf and the Abbey Mills Pumping Station where the Lee Tunnel starts in East London. It consists of the design and construction of two tunnel sections: a main 5.5-km tunnel and a connecting 4.6-km tunnel.
The new Assiut Dam, which is located on the Nile some 250 kilometres north of Luxor, is designed to replace an existing dam, built early in the 20th century 400 metres farther upstream. This new project, inaugurated in an official ceremony on August 12, 2018, aims to regulate the flow of the Nile, providing water for irrigation and power-generation (32-MW output produced by four 8-MW turbines). Accordingly, the dam is equipped with a power plant. Two locks ensure river navigation. The dam is designed to maintain a head of 4 metres to ensure a minimum discharge of 445 cubic metres per second into the Ibrahimia Canal to irrigate nearly 700,000 hectares of land between its location and Cairo.
Since 2004, Cambodia has experienced economic growth, which has resulted in an increase in the number of travellers, including both among the local population and visiting tourists. To respond to growing needs, we designed and built extensions at two airports in the country, thereby doubling their surface areas. VINCI Airports relied on the expertise of VINCI Construction Grands Projets to achieve these expansion projects. Within the VINCI Group, concession know-how is combined with design-build know-how to respond optimally to future user needs.
In addition, in 2017, has been delivered a new arrivals hall and boarding-area extension at Phnom Penh Airport.
VINCI Construction Grands Projets subsidiary QDVC is participating in the second phase of the construction of a new highway on the outskirts of Doha: the New Orbital Highway. This design-build project consists of a 47 km highway, six viaducts, 17 bridges and a 320 m cut-and-cover tunnel.
This is a five-lane dual carriageway for light vehicles and two truck lanes in each direction. Work started in May 2014.
Ten years after the delivery of the Meridien Hotel in Jakarta, VINCI Construction Grands Projets returned to Indonesia to build the new French diplomatic complex. The new diplomatic campus consists of two buildings (one housing the embassy and the other the French institute of Indonesia). The complex as a whole covers 7,400 square metres.
The project includes the redevelopment of the main access to the site and its infrastructure in response to the embassy’s operational needs. That was the crux of the challenge in this project: how to provide optimal public access while ensuring maximum security.
VINCI Construction Grands Projets was approached by Reunion Island for the construction of the Grande Ravine viaduct. This viaduct is one of the four exceptional bridges built on the hillside along Route des Tamarins (dual carriageway on the west coast). This new 32-km road connects Saint-Paul with Étang-Salé to relieve the completely saturated RN1 national road. To be more specific, our contract was to construct a 288-m-long and 20-m-wide viaduct spanning the 300-m-wide and 170-m-deep Grande Ravine in the middle of Route des Tamarins. The project was launched in 2006 and completed in 2009.
