On Wednesday December 15, a bronze work was installed in the Jean Jaurès metro station on one of the bridges of line A.

This bas-relief, produced by the Toulouse sculptor Sébastien Langloÿs, is the trophy awarded during the “ITA Tunneling Awards”, an international competition, organized by the International Association of Tunnels and Underground Space (AITES), which rewards the biggest projects emerging around the world, the most innovative technologies or even the use of the most original of underground spaces.

This bronze work represents the bust of the British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, inventor in the 19th century of the Great Western Railway, a series of steamboats as well as numerous bridges and tunnels. He also built the first tunnel under a waterway (the Thames in London in 1825).

“We received this award in Miami in November 2019 in the“ Technical innovations on projects ”category for the civil engineering extension works of 3 underground stations of Line A of the Toulouse metro, namely the Patte d’Oie and Mermoz stations. and Fontaine Lestang. This work required dismantling the tunnel on both sides of the stations, from the outside while keeping the metro in service. A first
worldwide in public works and a technical feat that has earned Tisséo the best possible way to stand out on the international scene ”declared Jean-Michel Lattes, President of Tisséo Ingénierie.

The project “My line A in XXL”

The “My line A in XXL” project aimed to double the length of the trains of line A of the Toulouse metro, thus increasing its capacity from 220,000 to 400,000 passengers. As part of these improvements, which began in 2017, the work carried out on the three underground stations of the Mermoz Patte d’Oie and Fontaine Lestang line caught the attention of international experts.

On these 3 stations, the structural work was not dimensioned for operation with 52-meter 52-meter trainsets: major underground civil engineering extension work was therefore necessary. The tunnel was dismantled from the outside while keeping the metro in service. The complexity of the operation lay above all in limiting the inconveniences for users and guaranteeing the accessibility and safety requirements of an automatic metro.

An inner steel shell was placed inside the tunnel during the summer of 2017 and removed in the summer of 2018. This device made it possible to isolate the perimeter of the work from the metro in operation. This made possible the construction of the diaphragm walls, the excavation of the land around the existing tunnel and the cutting of the tunnel lining in the station extension area.

The International Association of Tunnels and Underground Space (AITES)

The International Association of Tunnels and Underground Space – bringing together the world’s leading specialists in the tunneling and underground construction industry – aims to promote underground space and contribute to all actions that to make it known. The four editions of the “ITA Tunneling Awards” have already attracted nearly 1,000 participants and 310 applications. A few months before the event, the jury, made up of 17 experts, examines the submitted applications and selects a list of finalists in 8 categories.

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