GRAND MASTERS
Director of Metro Projects VINCENT DUGUAY tells RAIL how SYSTRA’s leading role in delivering Crossrail and Grand Paris Express makes it a trusted partner in any similarly complex mega-project across the globe
While London’s Crossrail enters its final stages, a similarly ambitious transformation of a European capital city’s transport network is under way on the other side of the English Channel.
Construction began in 2016 on the Grand Paris Express (GPE), a vast new Metro system that will have the capacity to move two million people per day throughout France’s capital city and the surrounding region.
Four new fully automated lines are being built, including a 47-mile circular line around Paris (Line 15) and three others to serve Charles de Gaulle Airport (Line 16) and other suburban areas (Lines 17 and 18).
Costing an estimated 35 billion euros (£ 30.14bn), the project will open in stages between 2024-30 and add 125 miles of new track and 68 inter-connected stations to Paris’ existing Metro and suburban rail networks. New fleets of fully automated rolling stock will provide a service at intervals of less than two minutes at peak times.
In addition to the physical scale, technical complexity and large-scale economic benefits associated with both London’s Crossrail and Grand Paris Express, the two mega-projects share another similarity - the central role that global consulting and engineering company SYSTRA is playing in bringing them to fruition.
In the UK, SYSTRA, along with Jacobs, is part of the Project Delivery Partner team led by Bechtel for the cross-London metro project, and has worked on many aspects including its detailed design and rail systems. The company is also at the heart of the Grand Paris Express project, having been awarded multiple contracts since 2011.
These include a project management contract to provide technical expertise on the automatic train control system, and for rolling stock on Lines 15, 16 and 17, plus a contract to design infrastructure and supervise construction of the southern section of Line 15 from Noisy-Champs to Villejuif Louis-Aragon.
Most recently, SYSTRA was chosen by Société du Grand Paris (SGP, the government agency responsible for Grand Paris Express) to manage the delivery of Line 15 East and West.
Line 15 is destined to serve 27 districts over a distance of 26.7 miles, and transport more than one million passengers per day from its scheduled opening in 2030. The contract for Line 15 East and West means that SYSTRA will be involved in all technical aspects of GPE.
This contract is also the first for the project where the client has appointed a partner to assist in defining parts of the programme. SYSTRA is supporting the client on the management of tenders on both sections of Line 15.
“GPE represents a huge investment in Paris’ transport network,” says Vincent Duguay, SYSTRA’s Director of Metro Projects.
“It will create economic growth and new patterns of passenger flows, by facilitating greater connectivity between suburbs and all three Paris airports for the first time.
“GPE has many technical challenges - including 95% of the new lines being underground, and all new stations providing an interchange with another network, such as the existing Metro, Tramline T2, and some of the RER Regional Express Lines.
“Our role on Line 15 is to support SGP on managing its major contracts for rail systems, rolling stock, infrastructure design, construction supervision and all aspects of the automated system”.
To manage this work, SYSTRA is supporting SGP through a competitive dialogue process.
This allows bidders to help develop alternative proposals in response to the client’s outline requirements. Once these proposals have been developed, tenderers are then invited to submit competitive bids.
Although competitive dialogue is well established in large public sector projects across Europe, such as the construction of schools or hospitals, it is still at an early stage of deployment in the rail sector.
“Here, we are able to give SGP the exact skills required when needed - whether expertise on metro systems globally or expertise on bridges and viaducts,” says
We are managing some big contract son Grand Paris Express for systems, rolling stock, infrastructure design, construction supervision, and all aspects of the automatic system. Vincent Duguay, Director of Metro Projects, SYSTRA
Duguay.
“The process of competitive dialogue means that potential contractors will take more responsibility for the design. This transfers some risk from the client to the contractor, but aims to encourage innovation and increase cost optimisation. It’s our job to make sure that both parties have enough infomation.”
To optimise cost, Duguay explains that SYSTRA’s approach has placed much emphasis upon future proofing for the next 20 years.
This has changed the company’s mindset to consider how future passenger demand and technology can be accommodated.
For example, it has to make sure that new communication equipment can be added, infrastructure can be expanded, and security can be tightened.
Duguay explains: “Grand Paris Express is one of the first projects where we are using the ‘Obeya lean management method’.”
Obeya is a Japanese word meaning ‘big room’, and the method - originally introduced by car manufacturer Toyota - enables people to work jointly using a tangible task planning tool. For complex projects such as Line 15, with more than 100 people working in four different locations including construction sites, one of the main advantages of the Obeya method is collaboration.
It facilitates and increases good communication, with Duguay adding: “We are raising more issues early on and sharing information amongst the team. Furthermore, Obeya also improves wellness and team morale. At SYSTRA, we have over 20 projects using the method, so far.”
“We are honoured to have been selected by SGP to contribute in this unique way, and now we can consider ourselves a full partner and can approach the project in such a way. The contractor relies on using different competencies. In turn, we use our experience from around the world.”
Given SYSTRA’s central roles and the expertise it has honed as a major player in two of Europe’s largest construction projects, Duguay feels the company is well-placed to help lead and deliver any similarly large-scale and complex infrastructure across the globe.
He concludes: “We will continue to improve and enhance our capabilities, using innovative new technologies and practical methods of project management.”