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.
Under lockdowns, many French people started to cultivate their own garden, including in cities or on the outskirts of cities, confirming the success of certain forms of urban agriculture. Major cities are becoming visibly greener, but does urban agriculture have an economic model that will ensure it has a stable future?
At the request of Bouygues Construction and La République des Hyper Voisins, six students from the École Urbaine at Sciences Po Paris worked for nine months on creating conviviality in urban areas. The proposed exploration strategy is to create the conditions for conviviality by introducing a professionally-structured form of citizen action on a micro-local scale. Explore their recommendations for the forms of governance that are most conducive to the emergence of convivial spaces, based on eleven areas of investigation in France and Switzerland.
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 2021, we surveyed 1,000 young people aged 15 to 25 about their relationship with the city. The responses, collected by Jam via the JAM chatbot on Messenger, are packed with findings!
Cities are made by men and for men: they have historically been planned and designed to reflect the traditional role of the male gender. This is a considerable problem since all genders should have equity in sharing the public space.
At last, an end to meetingitis and email addiction. This tool facilitates the management of meetings and follow-up in businesses. Bouygues Construction’s new partner is Perfony, a software program that makes everyone’s life easier at work.
“Tomorrow's cement industry will not only harness CO2 emissions but will also be producing its materials from waste. ” This is the ambitious target stated by the French cement industry trade union during its press conference on 14 November 2018.
A first for France. In September, social housing in Nantes will be built using an industrial 3D printer.
A facility that can evolve to suit its users: this is Bouygues Construction’s design goal for the 2024 Aquatics Centre. This location will provide the best swimming conditions for sportsmen and sportswomen during the Games and other high level competitions, but will also adapt to the sporting needs of local inhabitants.
