South Europe Atlantic high-speed rail line PARIS–BORDEAUX IN 2 HOURS PRESS PACK 2017 SOUTH EUROPE ATLANTIC HIGH-SPEED RAIL LINE
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South Europe Atlantic high-speed rail linePARIS–BORDEAUX IN 2 HOURS
PRESS PACK2017
S O U T H E U R O P E A T L A N T I C H I G H - S P E E D R A I L L I N E
Paris–Bordeaux in 2 hours starting summer 2017
TABLE OF CONTENTS
NEWS FEEDS
Twitter : @LGVSEA_LISEA
Facebook : Partenaire des territoires LGV-SEA-Tours-Bordeaux-2017
THE FULL STORY, AND ALL THE AERIAL FOOTAGE:
www.youtube.com/user/LGVSEAToursBordeaux
AND ON:
Linkedin-lisea
www.lisea.fr
} BRINGING PEOPLE AND PLACES CLOSER TOGETHER .....................................................................3 } OPTIMISING MOBILITY .......................................................................................................................................................... 3
} CLEAN TRAVEL ....................................................................................................................................................................... 5
} A PIONEERING PARTNERSHIP ...............................................................................................................6 } A 50-YEAR RAIL CONCESSION ............................................................................................................................................ 6
} MESEA WILL KEEP THE LINE WORKING SMOOTHLY UNTIL 2061 .................................................................................. 7
} REACHING OUT AND STAYING IN TOUCH ...........................................................................................8
} AN EXTRAORDINARY PROJECT ............................................................................................................9 } BUILDING THE BRIDGES AND TUNNELS ............................................................................................................................ 9
} EUROPE’S LARGEST RAIL WORKSITE ................................................................................................................................ 10
} 2016: DYNAMIC TESTING ......................................................................................................................................................11
} A HERITAGE-FRIENDLY WORKSITE ......................................................................................................12
} FUELLING LOCAL ACTIVITY ................................................................................................................... 14
} OUR COMMITMENTS: THE FOUNDATIONS AND OBSERVATORIES .............................................. 15
Designed by Hippocampe Studio – Adapted by Les Points sur les A Photo credits: LISEA, Komenvoir, J. M. Lecollier, A. Montaufier, Getty Images, TVK Architectes Robota, M. Garnier, Ateliers du Moulin, L. Marolleau, RC2C, JD Guillou, Johann Pagès, T. Marzloff, FIFO, SNCF Réseau, Fotolia.
PRESS CONTACTValérie [email protected]+33 6 20 67 45 86
@ValMarquis S O U T H E U R O P E A T L A N T I C H I G H - S P E E D R A I L L I N Ewww.lisea.fr
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OPTIMISING MOBILITY
Montpellier
Limoges
Angoulême
Poitiers
La Rochelle
ToulouseTTPau Tarbes
Lourdes
Châtellerault
Saint Pierredes Corps
Niort
Périgueux
LibourneArcachon
Agen
Montauban
CognacRoyan
Hendayeye
PARIS
TOURS
BORDEAUX
ParisBordeaux
2h04m
Paris Toulouse4h10m
Paris Agen
3h10m
Paris La Rochelle
2h26m
Paris Bayonne3h53m
St Pierredes Corps Bordeaux1h38m
Lille Bordeaux
4h36m
BordeauxPoitiers
1h03mBordeaux
Angoulême
36m
StrasbourgBordeaux5h37m
ParisPau
4h09m
Poitiers Tours30m
Poitiers Angoulême
36m
Paris Angoulême
1h43m
Paris Poitiers
1h18m
on to Lille, Brussels and London
on to Strasbourg and Frankfurt
on to Lyon
on to Montpellier
SPAIN
SHORTENING TRAVEL TIMES
The overarching goal for this new infrastructure is to shorten travel times. It will take 2 hours and 4 minutes to travel from Paris to Bordeaux (over an hour less than before), trips between Tours and Bordeaux will take 1 hour 30 minutes (instead of 2 hours 30 minutes), and trips between Poitiers and Bordeaux 1 hour (instead of 1 hour 49 minutes).
CONNECTING THE AREA
In its concession contract, LISEA has agreed to connect the main stations on the existing rail network, by building interconnections linking the existing line and the new high-speed line. Doing this involves building 38 km of new rail sections in Saint Avertin, Monts, La Celle Saint Avant, Migné Auxances, Fontaine le Comte (two interconnections), Juillé, Villognon, La Couronne and Ambarès et Lagrave.
FUELLING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Another important goal involves reinforcing the trans-European corridor connecting Europe’s northern and eastern regions to south-western France along the Atlantic coast. Connections to this close-knit network will spur economic development by enhancing the area’s appeal. Local businesses will be more competitive and in a position to venture into new markets, and the area will attract new businesses and more tourists on short city breaks.
ADDRESSING LOCAL STAKEHOLDERS’ EXPECTATIONS
Experiences in Lyon and Marseille, for instance, have shown that high-speed lines unleash significant development potential. The high-speed line between Paris and Bordeaux will also boost appeal throughout Europe’s south-western quarter. Given the stakes, this project involved working side by side with local communities with a view to concurrently shortening travel times, increasing service frequencies and tightening connections between high-speed services and existing lines.
Construction work on the South Europe Atlantic high-speed line (SEA HSL) began in 2012 and was completed in 2017. The goal for this large-scale public-interest project is to deliver a seamless high-speed rail link between Paris and Bordeaux that will shorten the journey to 2 hours by enabling commercial speeds of 320 km/hour. The challenge, in a nutshell, involved building a new 340 km line between Tours and Bordeaux (including 38 km of interconnections), through 113 municipalities, six departments and two regions, in five years. This project is exemplary on several scores, and designed to fuel development throughout southwestern France and to enhance the entire area’s appeal.
The SEA Tours–Bordeaux HSL will complement the existing rail line: it will open up more transport options, more intermodal links in stations and more TER (commuter and intercity) services.
SEA Tours–Bordeaux high-speed rail line
Existing high-speed rail lines
Other rail lines
Existing rail line, will be used for regional tra�c and freight
Shortest travel time from 01/09/2017 (SNCF data)
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BORDEAUX, ONE OF EUROPE’S FUTURE METROPOLISES
Almost 20 million passengers are expected to travel between Paris and Bordeaux each year when the high-speed line is opened to traffic, i.e. 20% more than today. A COHDA survey(1) for LISEA has found that about 60% of households and businesspeople in Bordeaux will travel more often to Paris. Almost 70% of households and 80% of business executives say they will take TGVs (high-speed trains) rather than any other means of transport. And one in two households, businesses and municipalities expect a direct TGV service every hour. These forecasts rank Bordeaux among Europe’s most attractive metropolises.
TRAVEL TIMES TODAY AND ON THE SEA HSL
JOURNEYS Pre-SEA On SEA (autumn 2017)
Paris-Poitiers 1h36m 1h18mParis-Angoulême 2h30m 1h43mParis-Bordeaux 3h11m 2h04mParis-La Rochelle 3h17m 2h26mSaint Pierre des Corps (Tours)-Bordeaux 2h30m 1h38mAngoulême-Bordeaux 0h56m 0h35mPoitiers-Bordeaux 1h49m 1h03Poitiers-Angoulême 0h48m 0h36mSaint Pierre des Corps (Tours)-Poitiers 0h39m 0h30mParis-Toulouse 5h24m 4h10m
Belvédère Garonne Eiffel, Bordeaux Euratlantique
1 h
3 h
4h
2 h
Paris
Lille
Strasbourg
Tours
Avignon Marseille
Toulouse
BordeauxNantes
Brest
Train travel times in France in 2017 (from Paris)
Caen
Rennes
La Rochelle
Lyon
MontpellierHendaye
PauPerpignan
Poitiers
Le Mans
The full survey findings (in French) are available on www.lisea.fr (“Nos publications”)
(1) Survey specificsCOHDA conducted this survey by phone from 23 September to 6 October 2014. • 300 interviews with businesses representing the economic fabric of the Gironde department (83%) and Toulouse urban area (17%);
• 181 interviews with municipalities in the Aquitaine region (94%) and the Toulouse urban area (6%); 42% of municipalities have populations over 2,000, 58% under 2,000;
• 750 interviews based on a representative sample of people aged 15 and over, living in the Gironde department, in municipalities with populations over 10,000 in the Aquitaine region (60%), and in the Toulouse urban area and in Montauban (40%).
Upgrading neighbourhoods The high-speed line will play a vital role reshaping the areas alongside it.
It will in particular spur large-scale urban redevelopment projects around the stations.
Euratlantique is a national-interest urban redevelopment operation that
will involve building a business hub and housing complexes spanning almost
1,000 hectares around Saint Jean station in Bordeaux.
In Angoulême, a 35-hectare multimodal urban transport hub, including offices, shops and homes, will be built around the station.
5
The viaduct over the Dordogne River will help shorten travel times between Paris and Bordeaux to 2 hours
BRINGING PEOPLE AND PLACES CLOSER TOGETHER 3/3
CLEAN TRAVEL
MORE COMPETITIVE THAN AIR TRAVEL
As it will significantly shorten travel times, the SEA HSL will have a compelling competitive edge over air travel and mechanically entail a modal shift. Forecasts suggest that, given the choice between travelling between Paris and Bordeaux by train or air, 90% of passengers will travel by
train (up from 70% today), meaning that the future line’s customers will substantially shrink their carbon footprints. Improving transport services around stations in city centres will also bring about more intermodal connections to tram, bus and other services.
AND MORE RAIL FREIGHT
With this new high-speed line, more freight will travel by rail instead of road, as it will open up slots for freight trains on the existing line, meaning opportunities to develop rail freight services. This dovetails with the measures that France’s Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy took in February 2013 to transfer more freight from roads to rail.
Trains are one of the most environment-friendly transport options. The French 2017 Grenelle de l’Environnement forum decided to develop high-speed lines, including the SEA HSL, to provide more alternatives to air and road travel.
One daily Paris–Bordeaux
return trip by aTGV full of passengers
who are travelling by AIR today will
save 50,000 TONNES of CO2
equivalent a year.
6
€1 billionSNCF Réseau contribution
€3 billionCentral and local government subsidies, and a €1.5 billion grant from the EU
€772 millionLISEA shareholder equity
€1,672 millionbank loans
€757 millionsavings managed by Caisse des Dépôts
€600 millionEuropean Investment Bank credit
LOC
AL G
OV
ERN
MENTS
EU
, NA
TION
AL AND
2009DECLARATION OF PUBLIC UTILITY(TOURS–ANGOULÊME)
CONCESSION CONTRACT SIGNED
MID-2011
MID-2016TESTS AND CERTIFICATION
LINE OPENS TO TRAFFIC
SUMMER 2017
2012CIVIL ENGINEERING WORKS BEGAN
RAIL WORKS BEGAN
MID-2014
DECLARATION OF PUBLIC UTILITY(ANGOULÊME–BORDEAUX)
2006
A PIONEERING PARTNERSHIPA 50-YEAR RAIL CONCESSION
1/2
LISEA* was awarded the 50-year concession for the future line following a call for tenders, and entrusted with financing, designing and building the new 340 km line then operating and maintaining it until the concession expires in 2061. Public funding accounts for 50% of the €7.8 billion public-private investment.
LISEA TO TAKE OVER FULL OPERATION
As the programme manager and the party tasked with sourcing the private financing, LISEA is covering the risks associated with designing, building, operating and maintaining the line. In exchange, rail operators will pay LISEA fees based on their use of the line. SNCF (French rail) will decide on ticket prices for domestic services based on its sales and marketing policy and costs, and other European operators will decide on ticket prices on international services.
Construction of the South Europe Atlantic Tours–Bordeaux high-speed line, a public-interest project entailing a €7.8 billion investment, is being financed under a 50-year concession contract. This arrangement, requested by the French government, is the first in France for a high-speed rail line and has enhanced efficiency on several scores: it has shortened construction timeframes, costs are known in advance and controlled, and the concession company has taken over traffic-related risks.
* LISEA: VINCI Concessions (33.4%), Caisse des Dépôts (25.4%), Meridiam (22%) and Ardian (19.2%).** MESEA: Vinci Concessions and Systra.
THE PLAYERS: LISEA, COSEA AND MESEA LISEA, the concession company, is a joint venture comprising VINCI Concessions (33.4%), Caisse des Dépôts (25.4%), Meridiam (22%) and Ardian (19.2%). It entrusted design and construction work to COSEA, a consortium led by VINCI Construction, under an agreement expiring on 2 July 2017. When the line is opened to traffic, MESEA** will operate and maintain it.
The FRENCH GOVERNMENT’S commitments and concession oversight.
The French government has made more than 1,350 commitments relating to technical and environmental constraints, and reducing noise pollution for people living in the areas near the line. SNCF Réseau and authorities
in the six departments around this line monitor LISEA’s compliance with these commitments on a regular basis. Independent
technical and other organisations (OTIs and OQAs) also supervise LISEA’s, COSEA’s and MESEA’s work. The French
Railway Safety Authority (EPSF) will issue the safety certification enabling the line to transport passengers.
7
€1 billionSNCF Réseau contribution
€3 billionCentral and local government subsidies, and a €1.5 billion grant from the EU
€772 millionLISEA shareholder equity
€1,672 millionbank loans
€757 millionsavings managed by Caisse des Dépôts
€600 millionEuropean Investment Bank credit
LOC
AL G
OV
ERN
MENTS
EU
, NA
TION
AL AND
A PIONEERING PARTNERSHIPMESEA WILL KEEP THE LINE WORKING SMOOTHLY UNTIL 2061
2/2
When the concession period begins, the focus will shift to the high-speed line’s operation and maintenance. MESEA will ensure the line operates safely and efficiently from the time it is opened to traffic in July 2017 until the concession expires in 2061.
MESEA’S DUTIES
MESEA will be maintaining the Tours–Bordeaux high-speed line from its bases in Clérac (Charente Maritime), Villognon (Charente), Poitiers (Vienne) and Nouâtre Maillé (Indre et Loire), to ensure the trains can travel safely at 320 km/hour, 24/7, for 44 years. This means: > Ensuring rail operators and passengers
enjoy optimal safety and comfort when using the line
> Ensuring all staff working on the line is entirely safe
> Driving continuous improvement, and social, technical and economic performance
360° SAFETY AND PERFORMANCE
MESEA will monitor the line on a permanent basis and take corrective and preventive maintenance measures to deliver flawless safety, reliability, availability and comfort on the Tours–Bordeaux high-speed line. It will provide 360° rail infrastructure mainte-nance, covering the surrounding areas, tunnels, bridges, tracks, catenaries, signalling, etc.
TRAINING AND RECRUITMENT: TWO CHALLENGES TO RAMP UP MESEA
In 2017, MESEA will have 180 people on its teams. It hired most of them in 2016 so they can hit the ground running when the line is opened to traffic in July 2017.The challenge, here, was to find people who were keen on venturing into a new line of work and learning new skills, as well as employees who already had experience in these very specific technical fields. It ran a targeted recruitment campaign to identify candidates in local job markets, in partnership with Pôle Emploi (French job centres).The bulk of MESEA’s employees are track and catenary maintenance technicians, systems technicians and switch technicians. It trained these new teams for six to eight months, providing them with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills they need to work in their new jobs.
MESEA comprises
VINCI Concessions
(70%), a private partner
in the public interest and
world leader in the field of
concessions, and SYSTRA
(30%), a company that has
been sharpening its expertise
in rail network management for
over 50 years and has established
a solid reputation as a world-class
player in its business. MESEA will
have 180 employees in 2017.
180 w o m e n & m e n
340 km o f n e w l i n e s
5 scinder sub-stations
MAINTENANCE3bases
1,400 km of track
24/7 MESEA is on duty non-stop
14 000
C A T E N A R Y
P O S T S 150 switches
4,200 ha F O O T P R I N T
500 tunnels
and bridges
SIGNALLING 40 STATIONS
MESEA facts & figures
TRAINING facts & figures
60,000 h of training
10 GROUPS
Find out more: www.mesea.fr
90 p e o p l e training on the3 MAINTENANCE
B A S E S
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REACHING OUT AND STAYING IN TOUCH
150+ PUBLIC MEETINGS
Over 150 public presentations and 2,000 work meetings were held with the municipalities alongside the route when the infrastructure and civil engineering work began, providing op-portunities for the teams to discuss the project’s timeline and worksite methods, and to answer neighbours’ questions.
LAND ACQUISITION THROUGH MEDIATION
Meanwhile, the teams embarked on extensive outreach and mediation with the people who owned and farmed plots of land along the route.The challenge, here, involved securing the land within fairly tight deadlines while listening openly, identifying the stakes in each individual situation and tendering solutions tailored to each case. Land and home purchases were settled amicably in practically all cases.
The high-speed rail line’s route today is the result of extensive consultation, which SNCF Réseau kicked off in 2001, and concurrently accommodates the technical, economic and environmental constraints. LISEA took over in 2010, reaching out to stakeholders in the areas alongside the line to discuss their concerns and requirements, ensure people living in the areas understood and accepted the project, explain the issues and defuse any tension.
LISEA also reached out through
various information channels including
a newsletter, LISEA Express (190,000
copies), its website (www. lisea.fr),
Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
The single gateway for any question:
LISEA began organising worksite guided tours from four starting points
in Jaunay-Clan (Vienne), Sorigny (Indre et Loire), Mansle (Charente) and Ambarès et
Lagrave (Gironde) in 2013. This initiative met an enthusiastic response: more than 20,000 people visited the gigantic worksite behind the scenes over two seasons. These tours were open to everyone and organised through
partnerships with local tourism authorities. Open days were
also organised on a more exceptional basis.
LISEA will remain involved in 2017,
partnering business events and supporting
innovation in surrounding areas with Top des Entreprises,
Nuit des Réseaux, Aquitains
de l’Année, Emergence and other
local awards and gatherings for
local businesses.
Sharing information
Worksite guided tours
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AN EXTRAORDINARY PROJECT 1/3
BUILDING THE BRIDGES AND TUNNELS
PREPARATION AND CIVIL ENGINEERING WORKS – THE INFRASTRUCTURE PHASE
High-speed line construction starts with all the infrastructure work (civil engineering, earthworks, reconnecting utilities and drainage). This phase encompasses all the operations required to prepare the ground before building the rail line. The goal, at this point, is to even out the soil by excavating and backfilling. This project was huge: 1,600 highly specialised machines moved 38 million cu. metres of excavated materials and 70 million cu. metres of backfill materials,
while accommodating SNCF Réseau’s and the supervising organisations’ many constraints. For example, the maximum slope at any point in the route could not exceed 2.5% without specific authorisation. Meanwhile, the bridges and tunnels on the entire route were being built by teams assigned to 18 works packages. Over 9,000 people were working together to tackle this challenge, at the project’s peak, in the summer of 2013.
500 BRIDGES AND TUNNELS, 10 INTERCONNECTIONS
Work here involved building 500 tunnels and bridges, including about 50 unusually large and “non-standard” ones, and 10 inter-connections to the existing rail lines in the areas surrounding the route. Examples include viaducts, rail bridges, road bridges, estacades (which are exactly like bridges or viaducts but unusually long and low), underpasses, overpasses, cut-and-cover tunnels, large wild-life crossings, culverts (for streams) and other structures to clear infil-tration and other water basins. These engineering structures’ spans range from a few metres (the “stan-dard” ones) to several hundred metres (“non-standard”) and they will carry the line across roads, other rail lines and watercourses.
UNITY, CONSISTENCY AND STYLE
The architects designing these engineering structures were keen on achieving unity, consistency and style, and tackled this challenge from two angles: blending the structures as seamlessly as possible in their surroundings and adding touches that bring
to mind the line’s destination, i.e. southern Europe and the sea. They did this with light colours on the concrete, mirroring the limestone used to build many houses in the area, and by adorning the bridge cornices with a wave-like hallmark.
The South Europe Atlantic Tours–Bordeaux high-speed line has been dubbed the project of the century – fittingly so on account of the project’s sheer size. It is the first time in French history that such a long rail line has been built in one stretch in such a short time. COSEA, the VINCI-led consortium tasked with designing and building the line, simultaneously produced 500 engineering structures and then laid 340 km of new track, using a wide range of skills and worksite logistics during the various phases.
State-of-the-art and impressive techniques
COSEA’s teams used several cutting-
edge techniques to build the
various engineering structures, for
example custom-formulating very
high-resistance concrete. Another
purpose-engineered technique,
“self-sinking”, involved building
structures alongside their target
location and then pushing them into
their final position with hydraulic
jacks. This technique keeps traffic
disruptions to a minimum.
A colossus crossing the Dordogne River
The Auxance viaduct, Folie bridge
near Poitiers and Couronne bridge
in Charente are three of the most
spectacular engineering structures
on the line. But the 1,319 metre
Dordogne viaduct was the biggest
challenge for the COSEA teams, on
account of its size and the resources
it required. It is the longest viaduct
on the route and the fact that one of
its sections spans the river entailed
a number of constraints. It took 200
people and 10 cranes to build its
foundations in clay soil, lift the piles
(which had 8 to 13 stakes each) and
bury them 41 metres deep before
laying the cantilevers that gradually
became the deck. Some 45,000 sq.
metres of concrete were poured
into formwork on-site to build this
gigantic structure.
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AN EXTRAORDINARY PROJECT 2/3
EUROPE’S LARGEST RAIL WORKSITE
TWO STAGING BASES, THE HUBS FOR THE REST OF THE WORKSITE
Laying the track and fitting the other rail equipment involved building two staging bases linked to the existing rail network and to the high-speed line under construction: one in Nouâtre (Indre et Loire) spanning 35 hectares and the other in Villognon (Charente) spanning 40 hectares. These two bases made progress in two directions: north and south.
THE RAIL WORKS
The rail works from the two staging bases encompassed about 20 projects. The first step involved fitting the signalling and telecommunications equipment on and off the line, i.e. the telecoms and other low-voltage networks (GSM-Rail, telephony, optical fibre, etc.) and the associated civil engineering works. Then the teams set up the catenary posts, following transport by road, and arranged the sleepers on the platform. Lastly, they added the first layer of ballast (“pre-ballasting”) so the rail works proper could begin. This involved: > Laying the sleepers> Laying the track> Ballasting, raising and stabilising the track> Installing the catenary> Adjusting and checking the track
TWO TRACK-LAYING TECHNIQUES
Two techniques were used on the South Europe Atlantic Tours–Bordeaux high-speed line.> The “auxiliary track” technique from Villognon (an 8 km track made up of 18 metre decks with wooden sleepers); > The “pusher wagon” technique from Nouâtre, which was like the one used on LGV Est (East European high-speed line) construction phase 2 (here, the works train travels on the track it is laying, the “pusher” wagon on the works train carries the track into position and pushes it forward, then a “spider boom” places the track on the sleepers).
Unlike the civil engineering, the rail works unfurled in a more linear, step-by-step manner. This phase involved laying 650 metres of track per day, with a succession of operations, and the teams tackled these organisational and logistic challenges between the summer of 2014 and the second quarter of 2016, to deliver the line for the dynamic tests, which were completed in January 2017.
Long welded rails were used to build
this high-speed line. The 108 metre long
laminated rails from a Tata Steel plant
in Lorraine were transported to SNCF’s
workshop in Saulon La Chapelle (Burgundy)
to be welded into 432 metre long
stretches, which were then delivered by
train to one of the two staging bases and
welded to each other.
W e l d e d r a i l s u p t o 4 3 2 m e t r e s l o n g
2 STAGING B A S E S
1 400 kmO F L O N G W E L D E D R A I L S1 100 000CONCRETE SLEEPERS
3 million TONNESOF BALLAST
640 kM OF CABLE
14,000
CATENARY POSTS
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AN EXTRAORDINARY PROJECT 3/3
2016: DYNAMIC TESTING
JUNE 2016 TO JANUARY 2017: THE TEST PHASE. THE LINE IS ELECTRIFIED, DYNAMIC TESTS BEGIN.
Dynamic tests began in June 2016, when the catenary was powered up (2 x 25,000 volts) on the 120 km section between Mondion and Luxé. That September, the two remaining sections (north of Mondion and south of Luxé) were electrified to complete the tests on the entire line.
Rail works
Rail works completed
System tests Superstructure checks
2015
2016
JULY 2017SEA HSL opens to traffic
JULY 2016
Dynamic tests
2017
Driver
trainingThe tests on the entire line were completed in early 2017
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A HERITAGE-FRIENDLY WORKSITE 1/2
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION:“AVOIDING, MITIGATING AND OFFSETTING”
The teams spared no efforts, during their preliminary exchanges with local stakeholders, the field surveys and every other stage, to factor these issues into the equation and to build a line that respects the areas and communities alongside it. The challenges were all the more meaningful as the three regions it travels through are
home to extraordinary heritage, including 14 Natura 2000 sites and almost 50% of France’s and Europe’s protected species (223 listed species).To minimize the high-speed line’s effects on the ecosystems surrounding it, LISEA and COSEA reached out to stakeholders dealing with biodiversity-related issues (nature
conservation organisations, farmers, local elected officials, relevant government agencies, etc.) to work with them in a formal setting as early on as possible. They pursued two objectives: sidestepping the most vulnerable areas, and swiftly taking targeted measures to offset environmental impacts, i.e. to create or restore protected species’ habitats. This involved two types of offsets in an area spanning about 3,500 hectares: acquiring land under a management agreement with a management organisation, and entering into agreements with forest and farm operators when their land’s ecological potential could favour the species in question, so that they would adapt their operations to accommodate those species’ biological requirements.LISEA implemented offset measures covering 700 hectares for the little bustard, an endangered migratory grassland bird (creating areas where this species can nest and feed), and covering almost 720 hectares for the European mink. It also recreated marshlands in Deux Sèvres and Vienne.
The French government requires concession companies building infrastructure such as the South Europe Atlantic Tours–Bordeaux high-speed rail line to spare the surrounding heritage throughout construction. This entailed substantial commitments, covering both archaeology and biodiversity, on the part of LISEA, COSEA and their specialist teams.
THE LARGEST PREVENTIVE ARCHAEOLOGY SITE IN FRANCE
Before construction began, extensive excavations were carried out on the entire route, from September 2009 to autumn 2013, in order to “detect, conserve or safeguard architectural heritage through scientific study” as required by the French law on preventive archaeology. The 130 prescribed surveys spanning over 4,000 hectares rank this as France’s largest preventive archaeology endeavour ever. This project uncovered several sites shedding interesting light on human history: two Middle Palaeolithic sites (one of which dates back more than 250,000 years); three Upper Palaeolithic sites; two Neolithic sites bearing witness to early sedentary village-like settlements; eight protohistoric sites dating back to the Bronze Age and Iron Age; five Gallo-Roman sites; and eight medieval sites. These discoveries will be discussed in academic and mainstream publications.
Archaeology near you
Findings from all the archaeological
excavations are showcased in a
travelling exhibition touring the
Musée d’Aquitaine in Bordeaux,
Musée Départemental de la
Préhistoire in Grand-Pressigny,
Musée d’Angoulême and
Musée Sainte-Croix in Poitiers.
Relocating freshwater pearl mussels
In the spot where one of the pillars holding up the viaduct over the Vienne River was to be built, the environmental impact assessment found 50 large mussels and 8,000 thick ones.
As this species is covered by a national action plan, the decision was made to transfer the mussels to the Creuse River, where other specimens of the same species has settled. To ensure the new habitat was suitable, 3 specimens were relocated in 2010 and they all survived.
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2/2A HERITAGE-FRIENDLY WORKSITE
Other conservation measures over and above these offsets included timing deforesting in such a way as to avoid disrupting protected species, ensuring reforested areas were as large as or larger than deforested areas, relocating certain species, and building 800 structures to ensure ecological continuity, ranging from viaducts to large wildlife crossings to small ducts.
PROTECTING WATER
Under French legislation on water, LISEA and COSEA took specific measures to protect water resources, avoid disrupting natural runoffs and preserve aquatic environments. This was a major focus area as the high-speed line crosses 600 natural runoffs, including 88 watercourses.In a similar approach, 25% of the worksite’s water requirements (for earthworks and surface watering) were sourced from purpose-built rainwater harvesting basins. Another challenge involved regulating surface water flows. LISEA, which built
600 crossings (ranging from viaducts to small ducts) conducted environmental surveys to record watercourse levels in the nearby wetlands before works began, then designed structures in such a way as to avoid altering the initial hydraulic conditions. These structures, in other words, are sized to avoid disrupting the highest predictable or the highest recorded water levels.Lastly, to ensure the line does not cut off animals from their natural habitats, 2,000 hydraulic structures were built to enable aquatic and semiaquatic fauna to travel seamlessly across the area.
PROTECTING NEARBY RESIDENTS
Minimising the high-speed line’s impact on nearby residents’ everyday lives was another major focus area and entailed a variety of measures.
Limiting noise: kilometres of noise barriers: SNCF Réseau’s main concern – among the many parameters it took into consideration when it plotted out the route – was to build the high-speed line as far as possible from inhabited areas. When this was unfeasible, LISEA and COSEA agreed to build a number of noise barriers and other devices near residential areas in order to meet regulatory requirements pertaining to the line’s acoustic impact. They conducted several tests, for example factoring in wind direction and local topography, to zero in on the necessary measures, which included building mounds and installing noise barriers.
Keeping routes open:All the roads, farm crossings and hiking paths alongside the high-speed line have been reopened.
Blending into the landscape:The areas skirting the line will have hedges and other vegetation, making the infrastructure less conspicuous. Landscaping in listed or registered sites and monuments will be designed specifically.
1,200 hectares of forests replanted
As building the line involved deforesting several areas on its route, COSEA agreed to
take suitable offset measures, i.e. replant 1,200 hectares (more than
it deforested). In Deux Sèvres and Vienne, two departments that lack tree species, it
replanted 2 hectares for every hectare it deforested.
Innovative viaducts for micromammals
When they built viaducts across rivers,
LISEA and COSEA added stepped concrete
edges enabling small animals to
cross on dry paths. In Charente, they
decided to take a novel approach. After
consulting local experts, they decided to
improve these edges with covered galleries built specifically for micromammals such as the water
shrews and water voles, which typically
move around underground. They also set
up footprint traps to identify the species that use these facilities.
14
FUELLING LOCAL ACTIVITY
RECRUITMENT, TRAINING AND INTEGRATION: AN EXTRAORDINARY PARTNERSHIP-BASED ENDEAVOUR
Hiring the 9,000 people who were building the line at the project’s peak, in the summer of 2013, involved an extensive recruitment campaign, including a specific drive to hire local people. The French government, COSEA, Pôle Emploi (French job centres) and the regional council signed an employment charter in July 2011 to roll out this recruitment campaign. This charter also entailed setting up a single application channel to fill vacancies more efficiently.
Several worksite-specific training courses were also provided and tailored to job applicants’ profiles through partnerships. For example, nine facilities providing training in earthworks and engineering structures were set up near the worksite during the civil engineering phase. COSEA and the consortium companies also teamed up to promote integration, for example entrusting 10% of the work hours to people on the outer fringes of the job market, and thus enabling at least 400 people to return to work.
LONG-TERM JOBS IN RAIL WORKS
The recruitment process also included a long-term perspective and career prospects. As part of their training, several employees were reassigned to new jobs in demand in the rail works sector, providing them with opportunities to acquire two or sometimes three separate sets of skills.
Also as part of the partnership between the French government, COSEA, Pôle Emploi and the regional council, an agreement was signed on 4 December 2013 to set up a “platform to support post-worksite economic transition”, designed to help SEA HSL worksite employees use their newly acquired skills at other worksites or in other jobs, and to help subcontractors weather the transition, once the construction phase is completed.
FUELLING LOCAL BUSINESSES
As 20% of the work was outsourced outside the COSEA consortium, this project generated indirect jobs via its subcontractors. The exact number of jobs, however, is difficult to determine at this point. This project also invigorated local economies, creating induced jobs in catering, housing, services and other sectors.
More than 9,000 people, including 2,000 local hires, were working on the high-speed line during the busiest period, in the summer of 2013. By the end of 2016, this project had generated about €812 million in revenue for local subcontractors. Several very significant partnerships and teamwork made these jobs and other benefits possible.
15
OUR COMMITMENTS
TWO LISEA CORPORATE FOUNDATIONS
LISEA Biodiversité provides long-term support for natural-heritage conservation and restoration projects in the departments surrounding the South Europe Atlantic Tours–Bordeaux high-speed line’s route. It is using its €5 million endowment for 2012–2020 to help fund local projects submitted by non-profits, government agencies and business in the nearby areas, aimed at: > Building nature-related knowledge (taking
stock and conducting surveys) > Restoring natural environments and habitats
for species > Raising public awareness and training.
LISEA Carbone helps fund local projects that are addressing three issues: reducing energy consumption in public buildings, smart mobility and energy transition in farming. This corporate foundation’s endowment for 2012–2020 also amounts to €5 million. This foundation teamed up with Bordeaux Métropole and the Nouvelle Aquitaine region in November 2016 to run an innovation competition for startups, tasking them with facilitating last-kilometre travel for passengers and showcasing virtuous means of transport.
The winners will be announced in March 2017, and the €15,000 prize comes with an opportunity to experiment the winning solution in or around Bordeaux.
See http://startupcontest.lisea.fr for details.
A SOCIOECONOMIC OBSERVATORY TO MONITOR THE HIGH-SPEED LINE’S EFFECTS FOR 15 YEARS
LISEA set up this socioeconomic observatory in September 2012 to measure the SEA HSL’s ripple effects in its area over a 15-year period, and to inform local development policies. This will be beneficial in two ways: it will shed light on the HSL’s local, economic and social effects to help local stakeholders steer their activities or policies, and build a case around the HSL’s effects. To date, this observatory has identified six focus areas including the worksite’s
economic and social windfall, its impact on transport and mobility choice, and strategies to blend the line into its surrounding area. The concession company has partnered SNCF Réseau, government agencies, local communities, and chambers of commerce and industry to run this observatory, which welcomes all experts in the areas and topics it discusses. It will remain active until 2027, i.e. for 10 years after the SEA HSL is opened to traffic.
AN ENVIRONMENTAL OBSERVATORY TO ASSESS MEASURES OVER TIME
This observatory will ensure the measures and offsets aimed at reducing environmental impacts are effective. It will remain active for five to 10 years after the line is opened to traffic, and gauge the line’s actual effects
on the landscape, human environment and ecology in the surrounding areas, in order to enhance knowledge and compile best practices related to reducing impacts.
LISEA chose to involve its teams and use its resources to support initiatives that foster sustainable development, in order to benefit NGOs, businesses and communities alongside the high-speed line. It is also intent on assessing the high-speed line’s ripple effects.
LA FondATIon LISEA CArBonE
L’eNGaGeMeNt duraBLedes FoNdatIoNs LIsea
2 0 1 4 - 2 0 1 5L’eNGaGeMeNt duraBLedes FoNdatIoNs LIsea
LA FONDATION LISEA BIODIVERSITÉ
2 0 1 4 - 2 0 1 5
Sillon Solidaire: calling for non-profit projects to curb exclusion COSEA, LISEA, and the Fondation
VINCI pour la Cité set up this
endowment fund in 2012, and
LISEA and MESEA have pledged to
maintain it over the long term.
Sillon Solidaire supports local non-
profits working on projects to curb
exclusion. Its focus areas include
integration, mobility, illiteracy and
housing. It calls for projects once
a year and has a €200,000 annual
endowment budget.
Contact: [email protected]
LA FONDATION D’ENTREPRISE LISEA BIODIVERSITé
www.lisea.fr/partenaire-des-territoires/nos-fondations
LA FONDATION D’ENTREPRISE LISEA CARBONE
www.lisea.fr/partenaire-des-territoires/nos-fondations
DOSSIER DE PRESSE2016
LE PLUS GRAND CHANTIERFERROVIAIRE EUROPÉEN
Ligne à Grande Vitesse Sud Europe Atlantique
NEWS FEEDS
Twitter : @LGVSEA_LISEA
Facebook : Partenaire des territoires LGV-SEA-Tours-Bordeaux-2017
THE FULL STORY, AND ALL THE AERIAL FOOTAGE:
www.youtube.com/user/LGVSEAToursBordeaux
AND ON:
Linkedin-lisea
www.lisea.fr
S O U T H E U R O P E A T L A N T I C H I G H - S P E E D R A I L L I N E
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