It's the world's longest sea-crossing bridge: 55 kilometres of motorway spans the Pearl River Estuary in the South China Sea before dipping into an undersea tunnel. The Chinese President Xi Jinping has today officially opened the gigantic infrastructure linking Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China. A colossal engineering structure, involving the Bouygues Construction subsidiaries Bouygues Travaux Publics, Dragages Hong Kong and VSL for the construction of a 9.4-kilometre section.
A bridge of strategic importance 5714 prefabricated segments of 250 different types, laid down at the rate of 18 per day, shaft grouted friction piling method to cope with difficult ground conditions – a technical first in Hong Kong –, sea-based installations and specific logistical arrangements to maintain the waterways throughout the duration of the works... Some notable innovations for the construction of this extraordinary bridge structure. It is now possible to reach Hong Kong from the main cities of the Pearl River delta in 30 minutes, compared with four hours by land and one hour by boat. A real basis for stimulating commercial ties between the two sides of the crossing.
Although the HLM movement will soon be a hundred years old, it is still calmly and determinedly addressing the challenges it must face: providing homes, of course, but also accommodating changes in society. Energy transition, climate change, regional sustainability, and the shift to digitalisation are all taken into account.
Bouygues Construction is inaugurating its demo for Wizom Connected, the group's smart and connected accommodation offer. The demo, which is open to both employees and clients, features full-sized examples of the equipment included in the comprehensive digital offer.
Urban overheating is becoming a recurring phenomenon, resulting from the cumulative effect of climate change and the Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon. Climate change is leading to an increase in the intensity and duration of heat waves (hot air masses causing high temperatures for several consecutive days) in different parts of the world. These meteorological phenomena themselves reinforce the UHI, a climatic effect causing a difference in temperature between the centre of urban areas and outlying or natural areas, which can be greater than 10 °C during heat waves. The effect is even more pronounced at night, when the heat stored by artificialised land and buildings is released into the air, keeping the temperature high. Faced with the various consequences (social, environmental, economic) and climate projections, local and regional authorities are now faced with the need to adapt their cities in order to combat this phenomenon. Below is an overview of the challenges and solutions.
In February 2005, France adopted a law making it mandatory for cities to create a living environment adapted to people with disabilities by making urban areas accessible to all within 10 years. However, the additional time granted and the leniency shown due to difficulties cities faced in meeting the established deadlines have greatly brought down the initial goal.
Building work began on Greencity exactly two years ago. Today, the neighbourhood is coming to life. Residents have taken over the first homes in the eco-neighbourhood located to the south of Zurich in Switzerland.
Health and safety is more of a priority than ever at Bouygues Construction, and effective safety measures are becoming even more important across all our construction sites. In light of this development, Bouygues Construction University has launched a training programme for team leaders.
Dr. Al-Hussein’s research has proffered a number of contributions to the industrialization of the building construction process through the development of modular and offsite construction technologies. He's telling us about it!
Carbon sinks are essential tools for combating climate change. They raise issues of environmental protection and restoration as well as technological innovation. Some of them are natural, others man-made. But they all act to capture carbon and ultimately reduce air pollution. They have already been discussed in the “Carbon Resilience” trend note; in this article we will look at the prospects for technical development and the absorption capacity of the systems in place.
With the support of Hauts-de-France Regional Council and Métropole Européenne de Lille, Bouygues Construction and Centrale Lille school are launching Construction Chair 4.0 to manage the sector’s digital transition and improve productivity through digital methods and industrialisation.
