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.
Whether you call it a smart city, a connected city or, even better, a smart region, digitalisation is primarily all about improving and offering new services to citizens and then to the persons behind local policies in order to allow them to run the city more effectively.
Mickaël Suchanek, Smart City Business Development Manager at Bouygues Energies & Services, presents the “AuthenTIC” Smart City project for Le Grand Dijon (Greater Dijon urban community).
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?
With the increase in the circular economy and the arrival of the next Environmental Regulation (RE 2020), many solutions are being considered to reduce the energy consumption of buildings. The heat produced by data centres could, according to some, be a solution. Here is why.
Resistant, light, efficient, ecological… Flax is used in construction on land and even on the sea! In 2022, the Netherlands inaugurated the world’s first linen bridge. A navigator used it to build the hull of his boat… Can this plant material really meet the needs of urban construction?
Creating this 6-hectare offshore space between two reserves that are marine protected areas (the underwater reserve of Larvotto and the Spélugues coral reef), illustrates the particular care given to respecting the site’s biodiversity and attention paid to impacts arising from the worksite.
Ramy Saad, energy efficiency and sustainable design engineer at Bouygues Bâtiment International, shares details of European research project “EnergyMatching”, part of the large-scale “Horizon 2020” programme on making energy efficiency improvements to buildings.
This is an entirely new approach to construction, a more ethical and sustainable one. It involves predicting changes in usage, and the reversibility of a building after construction The aim is to be able to change the building's purpose easily to accompany changes in lifestyle and in the regions themselves.
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?
