Lyon-Turin Rail Project Pioneers Sustainable Construction with New Material Recycling Facility
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The ambitious Lyon-Turin railway project is taking a meaningful step towards sustainability with the opening of its first material recycling facility in Illaz, Maurienne. The facility, inaugurated on October 9, 2025, in Saint-Julien-Montdenis, aims to drastically reduce environmental impact by reusing materials excavated during tunnel construction.
Transforming Tunnel waste into Valuable Resources
The €50 million facility represents a commitment to a circular economy, according to project leaders. Hervé Guillemin,a project and industry director at Vicat,described the scale of the operation: “The installation is 225 meters long,40 meters wide,30 meters high… the silos hold 5,000 tonnes of materials.” The core principle is straightforward – breaking down rock, separating components, and transporting the resulting materials for reuse.
The station is designed to process a significant portion of the 23 million tonnes of rock extracted during the construction of the Lyon-Turin base tunnel. Approximately half of this material will be repurposed directly within the tunnel itself. Pascal Schriqui, a representative from TELT, the company overseeing the railway’s construction and management, explained that a significant amount of high-quality material will arrive at the site via conveyor belts, “avoiding the use of trucks to bring the materials to the site.”
A Circular Economy in Action
The processed rock will be transformed into granular material, ultimately used as concrete within the tunnel structure. “This is truly in line with a circular economy,” Schriqui stated, adding that the facility is projected to handle nearly 5 million tonnes of material. The implementation of five-kilometer-long electric conveyor belts is expected to eliminate the need for 7,000 truck journeys throughout the project’s duration.
Josiane Beaud,co-president of the lyon-Turin intergovernmental commission,emphasized the environmental benefits. “If we hadn’t had this, we would have had to look for quarries.That would have been much more harmful, much harder on the environment for the people of Maurienne,” she explained.
Concerns Remain Among Local residents
Despite the project’s sustainability goals, some residents have expressed concerns about the impact of construction activities.One resident, living a kilometer from the Illaz facility, reported increased traffic and dust pollution. “With the influx of trucks on Avenue de la Gare, it’s becoming dangerous, and you can see the dust on the furniture,” the resident stated.
TELT officials acknowledge these concerns and assert they are taking measures to mitigate them. Schriqui noted the implementation of a network of sensors to monitor dust levels and the use of misting systems to suppress airborne particles.However, Bernard borjon, a local resident and vice-president of an association opposing the project’s nuisances, remains skeptical. “Given the scale of the project, we find it abnormal that we can’t control the dust a little more than that!” he said.
Local residents are hopeful that the majority of materials will be transported via the conveyor belts, minimizing truck traffic in the surrounding areas.
