On 6 January, the TBM Nebula, which was working on the Central Kowloon Route in Hong Kong, completed its tunnelling operations. Eventually, the CKR will cross the Kowloon peninsula from Yau Ma Tei to Kai Tak. Stretching for 4.7 kilometres, the project includes a 3.9-km long tunnel, for which Bouygues Travaux Publics is completing a 2.8-km, dual three-lane section between Yau Ma Tei and Ma Tau Kok. In addition to this twin-tube tunnel, the contract also makes provision for the construction of 31 branches, two access tunnels and a ventilation shaft.
 

On 13 January, at the Herrenknecht AG plant in Germany, Bouygues Travaux Publics teams successfully took delivery of the TBM which has just begun tunnelling at Pawtucket, in the USA!

Designed to go through a rocky geological formation with highly variable resistance and abrasiveness characteristics, this muti-mode TBM will complete a 3.5-km tunnel along the Seekonk river which will eventually store the region’s rainwater, as well as waste and industrial waters.

On 13 January, teams from the Horizon T2A consortium (Bouygues Travaux Publics, Soletanche Bachy and Bessac) carried out the operation for lifting the Marina TBM cutterhead which was used on the T2A batch of line 15 South of the Grand Paris Express. After first being dismantled in Créteil l’Echat station, lifting the 160-tonne, 9.87-metre diameter cutterhead was carried out successfully. 

Did you know? 
Before arriving at Créteil L’Echat in December 2021, Marina was the last TBM operating on line 15 South of the Grand Paris Express. Its arrival marked the end of tunnelling operations for the line’s 37 kilometres.

On 17 January, the Align JV (Bouygues Travaux Publics, Sir Robert McAlpine and VolkerFitzpatrick) began casting segments of the Colne Valley Viaduct in one of the site’s prefabrication units, on the worksite of the high-speed rail line HS2. The viaduct will be the UK’s longest railway viaduct with a total length of 3.4 kilometres. 

This prefabrication unit is the second to have been set up on site after the opening of the tunnel segments prefabrication factory in the Chilterns. 

On 27 January, within the Bylor JV, Bouygues Travaux Publics completed pouring of the unit 1 Turbine Generator table of the Conventional Island at Hinkley Point C. This was a single, continuous operation that lasted 36 hours. In all, 2,600m3 of concrete were needed to complete the work. 

On 8 February, the first launching of the metal framework for the second bridge of Moulins was successfully completed by Bouygues Travaux Publics Régions France teams. In all, 430 tonnes of metal structure were pushed for some 70 metres to move the first part of the future deck forward to its final position.

On 11 February, the Fécamp offshore wind farm, at Le Havre, celebrated the completion of its first gravity-based foundation. To mark the occasion, a press visit had been organized and was attended in particular by Hervé Morin, President of the Normandy Region, Vanina Nicoli, Sub-Prefect of Le Havre, Bruno Bensasson, Executive Director of the EDF Group in charge of the Renewable Energies Division and CEO of EDF Renouvelables, Olivier Roussat, Chief Executive Officer of the Bouygues Group, Pascal Minault, Chairman and CEO of Bouygues Construction, Philippe Amequin, CEO of Bouygues Travaux Publics and Bertrand Burtschell, Deputy CEO of Bouygues Travaux Publics. 
 

TBM Virginie, the biggest tunnel-boring machine operating in the Ile-de-France region, reached the Saint-Lazare station on 15 February last, marking the end of its 6-km long underground path on the Eole project, the extension of the RER E to the west.

In this project, Bouygues Travaux Publics is carrying out the section linking the town of Courbevoie to the Haussmann Saint-Lazare station, as well as civil engineering works at Porte Maillot.
 

On 21 February, our teams cast the second of the four mixed ramp concrete blocks for the future pedestrian walkway of the Pont de Sèvres station. This is situated above the station’s corridor link, on line 15 South of the Grand Paris Express.

The operation was successfully completed thanks to the mobilisation of a dozen or so people and 10 mixer trucks working in relay on the site.
 

On 6 March, on Hinkley Point C project, in the UK, a 347-tonne steel ring was placed on the unit 1 reactor building by the world’s largest crane, Big Carl. The ring was prefabricated in an on-site factory, before being hoisted by the 250-m high giant crane.

At the beginning of March, some 175 metres of deck (seven 25-m sections) were placed on their temporary supports, for 3 consecutive days, on the Mantes-la-Jolie viaduct site. These operations were possible following the completion of civil engineering works on the viaduct’s structure supports. 

In March, HS2 TBMs Florence and Cecilia crossed the first ventilation shaft, located near the village of Chalfont St Peter, on the high-speed rail line HS2. The event marked an important stage for the project, with a total of 5.7 kilometres of tunnel dug out by these two huge machines weighing 2,000 tonnes each, since their launch in the summer of 2021. 

On 16 March, a Top Site flag-raising ceremony was held in Sèvres, at the bottom of the OAP13 TBM launch shaft. The event was organised by the Horizon consortium (Bouygues Travaux Publics, Soletanche Bachy and Bessac), tasked with constructing batch T3A of line 15 South of the Grand Paris Express.

Developed by the Bouygues Construction group, the Top Site label aims to showcase actions carried out on a project, within the scope of a more sustainable approach to its activities. Actions evaluated are related to the following themes: health & safety, environment, quality and client satisfaction, social & societal concerns and, last but not least, innovation.
 

Final scene for the Horizon T2A consortium, led by Travaux Publics, on the worksite of the Vitry Centre station on line 15 South of the Grand Paris Express! After 5 years work, our teams left the Vitry Centre station, one of the 4 underground stations on this section, to make way for the "facilities" work section which is completing the work on this large-scale structure in the very heart of Vitry-sur-Seine.

At the end of March, the new road surface was laid in the M4-M5 Link Tunnels of WestConnex, in Sydney. This 7.5-km long twin-tube road tunnel will eventually link the M4 motorway at Haberfield to the new M5 at the St Peter’s interchange.