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.
Twenty years ago, the stands of the Stade de France buzzed with the first chants of football supporters during the 1998 World Cup. As the 2018 World Cup gets underway in Russia, let's take a look back at the construction of this legendary stadium with a few pictures.
In June 2020, eight major French cities saw their municipal councils taken or held by a Green majority: Lyon, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Tours, Annecy, Besançon and Poitiers. What do these green municipalities plan for the territories?
Bouygues Construction and Centrale Lille recently inaugurated the Construction 4.0 Chair, a partnership that represents the culmination of a 15-year relationship widely supported by the region and city. Two theses are already in the works. We met with the PhD students behind them.
The collective foresight approach “Let’s imagine tomorrow’s buildings together”, initiated by the Scientific and Technical Centre for Building (CSTB) and the French environment and energy conservation agency (ADEME), aims to prepare for the future of buildings in France by 2050 by sharing the different visions of construction and real estate players. Bouygues Construction is one of the partners in this open and collaborative approach that aims to plan ahead for the future of our buildings.
Formerly known as Tunnel Lab, the Lab TP is now expanding its range of innovations. Nicolas Braud, Director of Lab TP, Innovation, Digital and Big Data at Bouygues Travaux Publics, presents the development of his missions with his team.
The first part of the 6th assessment report of the IPCC, published in August 2021, made blatantly clear how important it is for us to meet the commitments made under the Paris Agreement by limiting global warming to less than 2°C, preferably to 1.5°C, and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The construction sector, one of the main emitters of greenhouse gases, is particularly concerned. It accounts for 19% of emissions in France (not including associated emissions such as electricity and heat production). At the heart of the sector’s low-carbon transition, the diversification and decarbonisation of building materials is an important lever: this covers the structuring of bio-sourced and geo-sourced materials, the development of solutions from the “dry sector” (reuse, prefabrication), and the emergence of new ranges of low-carbon concrete. The challenge is to be able to use the right material in the right place, according to the specific context of a given territory and a particular project. We turn the spotlight on low-carbon concrete: what processes and techniques does this term suggest and what does it promise?
Martin Sénéchal, urban ecologist and landscape architect at Elan
With the aim of reducing occupational health risks on work sites, improving productivity and producing complex items, 3D printing, while still in its experimental stage, is taking the building sector into an industrialisation process that will result in some exceptional achievements. Technology to serve US, not vice-versa.
