Press

July 2008: The jacarandas have shed their leaves, and a pale winter sun shines across Gauteng Province. Under a bright blue sky, progress on the Gautrain project has reached the 35% mark with works ongoing seven days a week, and sometimes 24 hours a day, over a total construction area of 42 sq. kilometres. The “biggest construction job in Africa”, according to South Africa's Transport Minister Jeff Radebe, is probably also one of the biggest in the world right now.

Just imagine 45 projects—15 of them extraordinarily large—being carried out simultaneously. Then add human and equipment resources of tremendous proportions, with a crew of nearly 6,000 (1,200 managerial staff ) using the entire range of civil works techniques over the line’s 77 kilometres – including 15 kilometres below ground: earthworks, foundations, tunnels excavated by tunnel boring machine or by blasting, open cuttings, bridges, viaducts built segmentally or with precast beams. And all whipped along to fit a tight 54-month project schedule….

And there you have it: Gautrain (derived from a contraction of “Gauteng”, the South African province dominated by the urban areas of Johannesburg and Pretoria, and “train”). Gautrain is a mammoth express rail link construction project in which Bouygues Travaux Publics is participating under the supervision of Charles-Etienne Perrier. It is a vital piece of infrastructure for easing congestion on a saturated transport corridor, and is of strategic importance to South Africa's hosting of the 2010 FIFA Football World Cup. While controversial at the outset, this project has since won over even its most ardent sceptics.

The Bombela locomotive

This project was on the drawing board as far back as 1998…. Several design versions later, the contract was signed in the form of a public-private partnership on 28 September 2006, after 15 months of negotiations between the Gauteng Province authorities and the Bombela consortium1 which was commissioned to build the Gautrain project and then operate it for a 15-year period. The consortium combines France’s Bouygues Travaux Publics and RATP rail transit operator, South African participants Murray & Roberts and Strategic Partners Group, and Bombardier of Canada. The total contract amount is €2.5 billion, with €1.2 billion allocated to construction, of which €550 million will go to Bouygues Travaux Publics.

The rail line

The Gautrain line forms an inverted “Y”, with the central stem running southwards from Pretoria to join the heart of Johannesburg at Park Station, and a branch heading to Johannesburg International Airport on the east side. The two “branches” forming the line from Park Station to the airport will be operational in 45 months and the “Joburg”-Hatfield connection will require an additional nine months for full service startup scheduled in 2011. No time to lose...

Firing up

Faced with this challenge, the ability of Bouygues Travaux Publics to meet the project's engineering challenges in application of international standards and to rigorously coordinate schedules proved to be decisive. In the space of one year, what equates to a fully operational contracting company was set up and 6,000 staff recruited and trained, followed by constant hard work to overcome high staff turnover. Workers of 22 nationalities can be found on site. The project is divided into different geographical areas and types of works. Pierre Pascual heads tunnel construction in the southern zone, which includes the tunnels of the Marlboro-to-Sandton segment, Sandton station, plus the Park and Rosebank tunnels and stations. Christophe Hirsinger manages the mechanical and electrical works for the entire project together with the airport link zone, which comprises the viaducts between Marlboro and the airport. The project’s northern section is headed by Sjoerd de Boer (for the works from Linbro to Midrand and the precast yard) and Wes Jones (for the works from Centurion to Hatfield). Together with their respective teams, they all have to cope with an intense pace of work and the difficulty of managing works simultaneously while sparing residents near the site from disturbance. 

More than just a train…

The project's chief benefits include its ability to stimulate the economic development of a very dynamic region with a large number of business centres, and to create jobs. Job creation makes training, coupled with appointment of management staff from deprived communities, an absolutely essential component of the project. “The project is expected to bring about many regional improvements, especially around train stations,” points out Olaus van Zyl, Gautrain project coordinator assigned by Gauteng Province. More than just a rail project, Gautrain is an issue of social responsibility whose key stakes include safety and environmental protection.

¹ The consortium name is taken from the steam train that used to transport miners from rural zones into Johannesburg.

Gautrain in numbers

• 77 km of newly-built track
• 15 km of tunnels (3 km using the TBM)
• 10.5 km of viaducts
• 55 bridges
• 10 new train stations (including three underground)
• 2 rail lines:
• - Park Station (Johannesburg's central station) - Rosebank - Sandton - Pretoria – Hatfield (63 km)
• - Sandton - O.R. Tambo Airport (20 kilometres)
• 10,000 parking spaces
• 6.7 million cu. m of earthmoving