ABSTRACT
With 68 new stations and 200 km of additional rails, the Grand Paris Express (GPE) project is the largest transportation project underway in Europe. The GPE project began in 2010 and has an ambitious schedule with major milestones planned between 2022 and 2030. To meet these deadlines as well as to control the associated cost, quality and safety goals, innovative construction technologies are utilized in this once-in-a-century megaproject. This article provides an overview of the new and innovative construction technologies used in the GPE project’s design and construction phases. Such a large project certainly presents a range of complexities and poses numerous technical, material and human challenges. Due to its high-risk nature, the risk management plan that applies throughout the whole GPE project along with the contractual and insurance conditions, is introduced first. Then, an overview is provided of the design principles and construction methods selected to overcome the engineering challenges and reduce the technical risks, accompanied by monitoring methods and digital approaches. Additionally, several innovative construction technologies, such as vertical shaft sinking machine, steel fibre-reinforced concrete tunnel segments and ultralow-carbon concrete tunnel segments, have been successfully employed in the GPE project and presented here. Owing to the mobilized resources and tailored solutions, the tight project schedule is still on track.
