The southern extension of the metro Line 14 will link the current terminus at Olympiades in the city centre to the Paris Orly international airport. The M14 last section (Lot 4) 4km-long between Pont de Rungis station and Morangis maintenance centre is to be excavated by an EPB machine 8.8m-diameter. Along the alignment, the TBM crosses the airport’s taxiways and the new passenger interchange station. The project includes the construction of 5 connected shafts and 330m cut and cover trench.
We face three main challenges in this work. The first one is the peculiarity of the airport environment, a zone with limited access and strict aeronautical regulations and constraints. The second concerns the geological aspects, the presence of swelling clays imposes a non-linear and time-dependent analysis to predict the ground behaviour. The last one is the tight planning to fulfil the milestone of the 2024 Olympic Games. Following the tender award, the engineering joint venture EGIS-SWS is now in charge of the detailed design of geotechnical and structural works. Our company is committed to the engineering studies and calculations concerning mechanised tunnelling, the construction of the RN7 circular shaft, and the monitoring plan of the construction works. Through the different analysis, the study of settlement and induced effects on the airport concrete pavement and the surroundings pipelines, viaducts and buildings, becomes one of the interesting engineering challenges that we are approaching by a complete digitised 3D Analysis.