Subsidiaries

Part of Bouygues Construction's Specialist Civil Works division, VSL is an expert in highly specialised pre-stressed systems for civil engineering structures and buildings and cable-stay systems for large bridges. It operates worldwide and offers its customers high added-value technical expertise as a result of the numerous patents it holds.

VSL is one of the world's leaders in post-tensioning, a technique for improving the load-bearing properties of concrete by incorporating high-tensile steel cables into structures and then putting them under tension. Post-tensioning extends the potential of concrete applications in structures such as bridges, decks and floors.

The company is also specialised in cable-stay systems for bridges. Alongside these techniques, VSL is able to employ Ductal^®, an ultra-high strength concrete which offers the benefit of lowering environmental impact by reducing the consumption of raw materials.

VSL's development is based on three strands:

VSL has a policy of creating alliances for massive civil engineering projects, such as the consortium currently working on the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link in South Africa, in which it is a partner of Bouygues Travaux Publics. Such alliances provide access to new markets through global solutions combining VSL's know-how with that of its partners. By the same token, partnerships with companies operating in fields related to its own enable it to diversify its offer.

The firm concentrates its research on cable stays, of which it is one of the world's leaders, and particularly on saddles. VSL also designed a full-scale model representing a unit of a nuclear power plant. Ten post-tensioned cables have been installed, seven for EPR-type facilities and three for other kinds of installations. They constitute the first physical application of cables intended for new-generation nuclear plants, and enable the company to demonstrate to all its potential customers its know-how in this field.

The VSL Academy has been created in 2008. Based in Bangkok in Thailand, the centre is dedicated to providing employees with theoretical and practical training in techniques of post-tensioning. It has the additional role of helping circulate innovations: all technical innovation, on whatever scale, introduced by any of the company's 35 subsidiaries are immediately relayed to the entire network through the VSL Academy. More than 300 people received training there in 2008.