France, Marseille – NGE wins three work package contracts for the city’s tramway line 3 extension

As part of the Marseille Tramway Line 3 North/South extension project, NGE has been awarded the contracts for three work packages by the Aix-Marseille-Provence urban authority. The projects will involve pipelaying, earthworks and catenary installation, all demanding super-precise phasing in this extremely busy urban centre.

1/ Pipelines: expert laying of large-diameter pipes in an extremely busy urban centre where traffic flows must remain uninterrupted. Working as a consortium member alongside 5 other companies, NGE subsidiary EHTP will re-route utility networks beneath 5 km of tramline track. Having mapped its preferred operating environment, NGE, as an accredited large-diameter pipelaying contractor, prefers to operate in locations requiring this type of pipe (900 mm cast iron drinking water supply pipes, 600 mm cast iron drinking water supply pipes, and 1000 mm concrete wastewater drainage pipes).

2/ Earthworks: with the ability to handle large volumes (63,000 m3), and having developed a special methodology for directing polluted spoil to the appropriate channels, NGE will be working near the Velodrome to decontaminate 63,000 m3 of excavated spoil, and carry out the earthworks required for construction of the future tramway maintenance and storage centre. The teams of Guintoli (the NGE earthworks subsidiary, and leader for this project) will work on a former 24,000 m2 car park to excavate a 3-metre deep holding tank. The technical profile of this site in the very centre of the city requires traffic management for the removal of soil from site, identification of channels with the capacity to deal with such large volumes, and ensuring that the right soil feeds into the right treatment channel.

3/ Catenaries: from installation to modification of existing terminals and subsequent commissioning. NGE has just been awarded the contract for ‘overhead contact lines and power supply substations’. The teams of TSO Caténaires (the NGE subsidiary awarded the contract) will install the power supply hardware for the North and South extensions of Line 3, and for the new maintenance and storage site at Dromel. The design work for the maintenance facility project will use BIM technology.