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.

Related Content

  • December 16, 2014
    Colombia kicks off second wave of 4G highway plan
    Colombia has published the pre-bid documents for the first concession under the second wave of the country's US$25 billion 4G highway plan, the 202 kilometre Puerta de Hierro-Palmar de Varela highway. Located in northern Colombia, the highway runs through the departments of Sucre, Atlántico and Bolívar. The project entails US$187 million improvement works on 175 kilometres, with construction estimated to take three years, said vice president Germán Vargas Lleras. The works are to be followed by a main
  • May 30, 2014
    US eyes European model for Illinois toll road upgrade
    David Crawford welcomes the adoption of European-style ITS technology by the US. The Jane Addams Memorial Tollway in Illinois, US is well on the way towards becoming a ‘smart traffic corridor’, taking full advantage of active traffic management (ATM or ‘managed lanes’) technology that originated in Europe. It is one of the first American toll roads to do so; preliminary work began in 2014 and will continue through to 2016. Jane Addams is one of four toll roads operated by the publicly-owned Illinois State T
  • October 16, 2012
    Pöyry extends rail network maintenance management contract in Eastern Finland
    The urban business group of Finnish consulting and engineering company Pöyry has been awarded a contract from the Finnish Transport Agency for maintenance management of the 1,800 kilometre-long Eastern Finland railway network, which the company has been managing since 2005. The new contract, valued at around US$6.7 million (EUR 5.2 million) commences at the beginning of 2013 and will run for five years. The contract covers the maintenance management of railways, rail structures and equipment, land areas and
  • June 30, 2015
    Egis to maintain systems on Poland’s A4 motorway
    Poland’s General Directorate of the National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA) has awarded Egis two contracts for the maintenance of telecommunication, traffic management and tolling systems on 162 kilometres of the A4 motorway between Wroclaw–Katowice in Poland. These contracts cover 68 toll lanes on 13 toll plazas monitored by one operation centre and 80 pairs of emergency roadside telephones located along the motorway. They continue GDDKiA’s intention to bring the A4 up to toll motorway standards and inclu