2023-07-20 11:34:04
Celine is about to make her entrance. The huge tunnel boring machine, 1,400 tonnes of steel and 100 m long, which will pierce the tunnels of the future line 18 of the Grand Paris Express, finally arrives this Wednesday at the future Massy Opéra station. A month earlier, her twin Caroline had completed her excavation work on the opposite side, in Orly (Val-de-Marne). At a rate of 15 m per day, it took two years to lay out the 6 km course.
“A tunnel boring machine is a train equipped with a drill head at the front where 20 people take turns working day and night,” says Vincent Germain, project manager for the Grand Paris Express (SGP) company, which is leading the construction project. It’s like a huge mobile factory. You live there like in a submarine. There is a refectory, living quarters, a cockpit…”
Massy, July 19, 2023. A hundred people came to watch the arrival of the Céline tunnel boring machine at the future Massy Opéra station on line 18 of the Grand Paris Express.
And this Wednesday, a hundred people in orange fluorescent jackets and wearing white helmets from the Vinci companies and the municipality of Massy came to witness the arrival of the beast at the station. Twenty meters below the ground, you hear a dull hum and a screeching like that of a sole slipping on a parquet floor. These are the signs that announce the imminent arrival of the drill which is about to pierce the wall at any moment.
A guided tour scheduled for July 31
But Céline is more than an hour late, the star is waiting. Phones raised, the hands of the spectators begin to tire when suddenly, a section of wall collapses, then two, deluge of gray muddy water and crash. Silence then clamor in the audience when the mechanical teeth of the great machine appear. Nicolas Samsoen, mayor (UDI) of Massy, has not lost a crumb. “The Grand Paris Express is an incredible opportunity for Massy Opéra, an isolated working-class district which, thanks to this new station, will become very attractive. This will also make it possible to relieve the RER line, there is only positive. »
By 2030, the future 35 km long automatic metro will serve 10 stations between Orly airport and Versailles-Chantiers (Yvelines), via Massy, the Saclay plateau and Antonypôle (Hauts-de-Seine). Line 18 is scheduled to open in 2026 between Massy-Palaiseau and the Saclay plateau, then in 2027 for the section between Massy-Palaiseau and Orly (including Massy-Opéra).
As in Antony, an open day within the Massy-Opéra station will be organized on July 31 to allow local residents to visit the premises. Its mission completed, Céline will return to service next October to drill the last 650 meters of this section of line 18 which will allow you to reach Orly by metro. Finally, the machine will then be dismantled to be remobilized on the Saint-Quentin Est – Versailles Chantiers section at the other end of the line.
#Grand #Paris #Express #line #tunnel #boring #machine #arrives #Massy #Opéra #station