Bessac to Supply TBM for French Railway Project

By TBM News August 8, 2018

Bessac is going to supply a new tunnel boring machine to Vinci (Chantiers Modernes Construction). This 4.4-m EPB machine will be implemented to bore a safety gallery for the SNCF railway tunnel located on the West of Paris in Meudon city. As the TBM will bore a non-through tunnel, the machine has been designed to be dismantled within the underground work.

The contract has been signed on March 2018 and includes the machine with its backup and rolling stock. Currently under manufacturing in the St. Jory (France) workshop, the machine will be delivered in September this year.

French rail network operator SNCF Réseau has awarded a consortium made up of Bessac (leader), Chantiers Modernes Construction and Soletanche Bachy France (all VINCI Construction companies) with the contract to build this safety feature on line C of the RER Paris expressway.

The project involves:

· Special works at the tunnel mouth: nailing, shotcrete, piles, grouting
· A tunnel 1,700-m long with an internal diameter of 3.50-m to be dug by the Bessac EPB
· Two connecting branches with the SNCF tunnel, dug using NATM methods
· A technical facility