Tisséo unveils the names of the companies that will build the third metro line
Tisséo Collectivités has voted to award the main construction lots for the future third line of the Toulouse metro. In total, more than 1.1 billion euros of market were signed this morning.
“We are voting this morning to launch the largest operational project ever launched in Toulouse and its agglomeration” warned Jean-Michel Lattes at the opening of the Tisséo Collectivités union committee. As chairman of this body, he put to the vote of the elected officials the allocation of major construction lots for the third metro line. In just one hour, 1.11 billion euros of construction sites were awarded.
The metro will cost 3.4 billion instead of 2.9 billion
Long awaited by construction companies, this result will however be followed by another wave of awards in February 2023. This morning the names of the companies or groups of companies selected were therefore revealed, knowing that the price criterion, even if it was not the unique compass, it weighed a lot. Sacha Briand, member of the union committee of Tisséo and vice-president of Toulouse Métropole in charge of finance, has also updated the budget overrun of the third line. An additional cost which is explained by the global inflation which is hitting the construction and materials sector. In total, the budget for what should now be called line C of the Toulouse metro will reach 3.444 billion euros instead of 2.9 billion initially planned.
In the details of the allocations for this major project, the northern trench of the access tunnel to the Daturas workshop garage near Sept Deniers was awarded to the Solétanche Bachy France (leader) – Bouygues Travaux publics regions de France consortium for €11 million awarded Added to this is a grant of €438,000 and a general tax on polluting activities for excavation spoil for €681,000.
The viaducts that will span the area from the south of Montaudran to the Labège terminus were won by the Bouygues TPRF consortium allied with Baudin Châteauneuf and Solétanche Bachy FP for an amount of nearly €132 million (+€115,000 in general tax on polluting activities for excavation spoil). The underground works for the connection with line B were awarded to the Bessac – GTM Sud-Ouest consortium (Vinci group) for €41 million.
Two large pieces of almost a billion euros
The two large parts of the calls for tenders concerned the tunnels, stations and ancillary works in the central sector of lots 2 and 3. Between them, they are close to a billion euros (954 M€). Lot 2 concerns the section from Laporte located in Saint-Martin-duTouch near Airbus to Raynal station in the Raisin district near the Canal du Midi. It is the consortium led by Eiffage Génie civil as agent allied to NGE Génie civil, Eiffage Fondations and NGE Fondations which was awarded €589 million, (+€2.1 million for the general tax on polluting activities for excavation material).
Lot 3, which concerns the very city center since it starts from Raynal station to the Saint Sauveur well near the Grand Rond, was awarded to the Demathieu & Bard Construction consortium allied with Implenia France and Implenia Switzerland for more than 365 M € (+€3.3 million in taxes). It should be noted that Demathieu & Bard had already been awarded a €59.5 million contract last November for the construction of a 2.2 km viaduct to extend line B between Ramonville and Labège.
“Slowing down the project would be a profound mistake”
Despite the budget overrun imposed by inflation, it was almost unanimous that this first burst of awarding contracts for the construction of the third line was received. “These contracts take another step towards the operational phase of the metro project. We must make this financial effort and continue to support this metro line which will transport 200,000 daily passengers because no other mode of transport will be able to relieve the movement of the inhabitants of the metropolis, pleaded Karine Traval Michelet, the mayor of Colomiers and vice-president (PS) of Toulouse Métropole. No major project is done without effort” she added.
Representing the group of independent elected officials, Joseph Carles, mayor of Blagnac warned that “that any delay or reduction in the ambition of the third metro line would be a profound error” calling for the project to be completed. Thierry Suaud, mayor (PS) of Portet-sur-Garonne and vice-president in charge of transport for the Muretain Agglo, has let it be known that he did not win the vote.