EOLE Station Wins French National Engineering Award

By TBM Staff November 18, 2019

The “Grand Prix National de L’Ingénierie (GPNI) 2019,” the French National Engineering Award, was presented on Oct. 24 to the project management team in charge of the EOLE station under the CNIT (Center of New Industries and Technologies) in Paris La Défense. The station is part of the Paris west RER suburban line extension project (EOLE).

The client is SNCF (French National Railway Network Agency), with design being performed by setec tpi in association with L’Agence Duthilleul-Arep and Antea Group. Design partners included terrasol, planitec btp, setec ferroviaire, setec bâtiment, and the setec organization

The western extension of the Paris suburban RER line E incorporates a new underground station at the financial district of La Défense. This new station required the following new infrastructures: an 8-km tunnel, two underground stations comprising 225-m long platforms, and ancillary works alongside the tunnel (emergency exits, ventilation and smoke extraction).

The main challenge of this station is to guarantee the integrity of the vault of the CNIT, one of the most iconic structures of La Défense district built 60 years ago. This vault constitutes an opening-length world record (approximately 220 m in between the three supports). Ensuring the integrity of the buildings inside the vault was also challenging, as they remained operative during the works.

setec tpi leads the project on behalf of SNCF. The preliminary design took place in 2010 and the design and construction services started in 2012. Currently, setec teams (namely, tpi and terrasol) supervise the works execution design and the site works.