4 September 2013: Breakthrough of the final tunnel at Hallandsås in Sweden

Photograph: Göran Fält/Trafikverket

5 September 2013 - Projects update and handover - Sweden

Does the name Hallandsås mean anything to you?
Ask a tunnel specialist about it. He will explain to you why this project, taken over in 2002 by the joint venture involving Skanska (60%) and VINCI Construction Grands Projets (40%), following two previous aborted attempts, is one of the best known among underground construction professionals throughout the world.

The main challenge was to dig through the varying types of rock in a horst, a raised fault block created by movements in the earth's crust some 70 million years ago. In addition, the tunnels run 150 m under the water table, under a hill saturated with water up to the surface, through loose ground that is extremely permeable in places.

Three years after the breakthrough of the first of the two Hallandsås railway tunnels, the Tunnel Boring Machine will soon be completing its work. The project is due to be completed in 2014 and the two tunnels are due to enter service in 2015.

This project forms part of the programme for the refurbishment of the Malmö-Gothenburg railway line, the objective of which is to increase traffic on the line significantly and to double the maximum weight of goods trains. It comprises the design and construction of the two tunnels (length: 5,500 m each; internal diameter: 9 m), together with the construction of 12 cross-passages.

In November 2013, the Prado South tunnel in Marseilles will be inaugurated

The project comprises the provision, in the form of a Délégation de Service Public (outsourcing of public services) for a period of 46 years, of finance, design, construction and operation of the Prado South tunnel, which will be a continuation, for approximately 1.5 km, of the Prado Carénage tunnel and will link the A50 autoroute to the Avenue du Prado II and to the Boulevard Michelet.

On the project for the second phase of the LGV Est européenne, the Tunnel Boring Machine Charlotte completed the breakthrough of the second tube of the Saverne tunnel in the Vosges massif on 25 February 2013.

2 September 2013, reopening of the Croix Rousse tunnel in Lyon, France

Following several months of works and a whole battery of tests, the people of Lyon will once again be able to use the road tunnel. This crucial stage, which comprised the refurbishment of the tunnel and of its five ventilation stations, required the total involvement of all participants, in order to optimise the organisation of the works. The final stage, the completion of the external works and the fitting out of the eco-friendly tube to take all the operations equipment and digital signage/messaging, will now start. The works are due to enter service at the end of 2013.

On 16 May 2013, the new "Coentunnel", in Amsterdam, entered service.

The concession company, Coentunnel Company, a joint subsidiary of VINCI Concessions, CFE (VINCI Construction) and its subsidiary Dredging International, and of their Dutch and Belgian partners, officially inaugurated the second "Coentunnel" in Holland on Thursday 16 May 2013, in the presence of Melanie Schultz Van Haegen, the Dutch infrastructure and environment minister.

In July 2013, on the site at El Teniente, the largest underground copper mine in the world

In July 2013, on the site at El Teniente, the largest underground copper mine in the world, located 80 km to the south of Santiago (Chile), the excavation of the tunnels was 20% complete, progressing by 370 metres per month. VINCI carried out the excavation using explosives of two 9 km tunnels, together with two intermediate access galleries, 6 km long in all. These tunnels will allow a new working level to be created in the mine.

In March 2013, two new contracts as part of the Lee Tunnel project

In London (UK), the joint venture comprising VINCI Construction Grands Projets, Bachy Soletanche (VINCI Construction) and Morgan Sindall were awarded two contracts by Thames Water as part of the Lee Tunnel project. The Lee Tunnel project, won at the end of 2009 by the same joint venture, comprises the construction of a 7 km tunnel, which will halve the 32 million cubic metres of untreated sewage and rainwater discharged into the Thames every year. It also includes the construction of 4 very large shafts, not including Shaft G, and the supply and installation of the plant and automatic controls needed to manage the effluent and to raise it more than 80 m. The works are due to be completed by the end of 2015.