Skip to main content

Flagship French motorway inaugurated

The inauguration of the French Landes A63 motorway marked the culmination of 27 months of major works carried out adjacent to traffic by the economic interest group GIE A63. The road concessionaire, Atlandes, of which Egis is a shareholder, had awarded the construction contract to GIE A63, which then hired Egis for the turnkey integration of fixed and operational equipment and an 80 per cent share of the engineering, procurement and construction management. Atlandes also awarded Egis the subsequent operati
April 16, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
The inauguration of the French Landes A63 motorway marked the culmination of 27 months of major works carried out adjacent to traffic by the economic interest group GIE A63. The road concessionaire, Atlandes, of which 7319 Egis is a shareholder, had awarded the construction contract to GIE A63, which then hired Egis for the turnkey integration of fixed and operational equipment and an 80 per cent share of the engineering, procurement and construction management.  Atlandes also awarded Egis the subsequent operation and maintenance of the 104 kilometre motorway.

The other members of the consortium are Colas Sud Ouest, Axmium, Spie batignolles, NGE, InfaRed and DIF A63 Luxembourg.

Egis carried out a US$33.5 million integrated engineering assignment, starting in September 2010 with a development study phase lasting nearly a year and leading to work commencement in September 2011.

The first phase of works involved building two toll stations, a maintenance centre, 16 rest and service areas, water treatment lagoons, and widening the carriageway to three lanes each way for 40 kilometres before toll operations began in April 2013. The second phase, completing the road-widening work, was successfully delivered in November 2013.

Conversion of Route Nationale (RN) 10 motorway, running in the south western French départements Gironde and Landes is a crucial step forward for the major European traffic corridor running from northern Europe into Spain and Portugal via Bordeaux.  Used by nearly 30,000 vehicles per day, including 30 per cent of heavy vehicles, the three-lane motorway complies with stringent motorway and environmental standards, including noise abatement measures, protection of water resources and the construction of 12 rest areas and four motorway service stations with capacity for 1,200 heavy goods vehicles.

Egis also supplied all the operating plant and equipment including the toll system, the motorway traffic management facilities and the road signage.  The company also manages the operation and maintenance of this new 104-km stretch of motorway through its operating subsidiary Egis Exploitation Aquitaine, which is responsible for the tolls, asset monitoring and motorway safety.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Temporary traffic monitoring with Bluetooth and wi-fi
    May 31, 2013
    David Crawford reviews developments in temporary ITS. Widespread take-up of technologies such as Bluetooth and wi-fi are encouraging the emergence of more sophisticated, while still cost effective, ITS responses to the traffic issues posed by temporary road situations such as work zones and special events. Andy Graham of traffic solutions specialists White Willow Consulting says: “A machine-to-machine radio link is far easier and cheaper than reading characters on a plate.” There can be other plusses. Tech
  • Smart motorway planned for Western Australia
    May 16, 2017
    In a bid to reduce high levels of congestion on the Kwinana Freeway near Perth in Western Australia, the government is planning to introduce a smart motorway by converting the emergency stopping lane to a full-time running lane. The concept is similar to the smart motorways in use in the UK which use variable speed limits during busy times to manage congestion. The US$25 million (AU$47 million) project is expected to start in 2018-2019 and will also include: in-road detectors and full CCTV coverage to provi
  • America THINKS 2014 mobility survey
    February 10, 2014
    The most recent America THINKS survey from civil engineering consulting and construction management firm HNTB examines the public’s views on the country’s current and future mobility trends, finding that many Americans fear the potential for local infrastructure failure and see a clear need for the industry to offer the spark of innovation moving forward. The survey polled a random nationwide sample of 1,152 Americans in 2013 using an e-mail invitation and online survey. Nine in ten (90 per cent) Ame
  • Scrap all-lane running plans, say MPs
    June 30, 2016
    Plans to convert hundreds of miles of UK motorway hard shoulder into permanent driving lanes should be scrapped while major safety concerns exist, the Government’s Transport Committee has said. In 'all lane running', the latest version of smart motorways, the hard shoulder is used as a live lane of traffic. Previous schemes have only used the hard shoulder at peak times or to deal with congestion. The Committee did not agree with Government that this is an incremental change and a logical extension of