Passenger safety is one of the key areas of focus for Equans France, and a major challenge for the Grand Paris Express and its two to three million daily users.
Invisible to passengers, yet three times more numerous than the stations of the Grand Paris Express, the service structures, also known as ancillary structures, provide power for the infrastructure and train traffic, ventilation for the tunnel and stations (smoke extraction in the event of fire and air renewal), access to the tunnel for emergency services (fire department response and passenger evacuation), and seepage water recovery.
Essential to ensuring the smooth running of the metro and the comfort and safety of passengers, service structures are located every 800 metres or less.
In all, Equans has contributed to the utility work on 98 ancillary structures on lines 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18, guaranteeing installations that comply with the most stringent safety standards.
Axima Tunnel, an Equans France entity, in partnership with Eiffage, for the FAN consortium, and accompanied by Ineo UTS for power supply and control, has won several contracts for ventilation, smoke extraction and decompression in the tunnels of lines 14 Sud, 15 Sud, 16, 17 and 18 Est of the GPE.
Located both within the service structures and along the tunnels, these ventilation systems are designed to optimize air renewal in the galleries, maintaining a breathable atmosphere and efficiently evacuating smoke in the event of fire.
The work includes the installation of powerful 355 kW fans capable of managing air flows in a wide range of conditions, ensuring maximum comfort and safety for passengers and operating staff.
Last June, the Bouygues group entity was also chosen to supply all the power supply and tunnel ventilation systems for the 6 service structures on Line 15 West.
Platform facades, a key element in passenger safety
On each platform, they are to be installed to prevent falls onto the tracks, smooth passenger flow and improve operations.
In a consortium with Portalp, Ineo UTS is responsible for project management, systems engineering, power supply, control and supervision, as well as the installation of its systems on lines 14, 16, 17 and 18.
With 35 km of automatic metro, including 13 km overhead, the line will be able to accommodate between 150,000 and 200,000 passengers every day. Safety is therefore a major issue.
In response, Equans and its partner Portalp are installing 1.21 km of platform facades, including 840 meters for the seven stations in the firm tranche: Orly airport, Antonypôle, Massy Opéra, Massy Palaiseau, Palaiseau, Orsay-Gif and CEA Saint-Aubin.
At the end of this major project, all twenty platforms on line 18 will be equipped with 12 platform doors, 9 of which will be in service by 2026, with a further 3 planned for future train extensions.
On each platform, a manual station console will enable local control of the panel frontage. In total, Equans will install 912 (384 for L14, 288 for L16/17 and 240 for L18) platform doors on all these lines!
“ Tomorrow, a concrete, tangible infrastructure will make it possible to decarbonize the city, and we will have put our know-how at the service of this transition. I think the whole team can be proud of that! ”
Installation of Fire Safety Systems (SSI)
In terms of fire prevention, Axima and Ineo have installed fire safety systems in the new Orly station, which will serve lines 14 and 18, as well as in the new Saint-Denis Pleyel and Villejuif-Gustave Roussy stations.
The installation of early fire detection and extinguishing systems in the tunnels will enable rapid and effective intervention in the event of an incident.
Equans France to deploy private LTE mobile network from 2020
More recently, in partnership with Nokia, Equans France is deploying the LTE private mobile network for the new automatic lines 15, 16 and 17, spanning 200 kilometers of line and 68 stations. Equans, through its subsidiary Ineo Rail, is responsible for managing the project, from the design and purchasing phase through to full commissioning, thanks to the use of LTE1 technology, which is more reliable and secure than conventional systems.
LTE1 technology is a variant of 4G mobile telecommunications networks, often adapted to railway requirements to enable stable, high-speed communications in mobile environments. It is similar to the cell phone networks used by the general public, but modified to meet the specific requirements of rail transport (train-ground communication, for example).
The project's ambition is to provide critical operational services to meet all the operating, maintenance, rescue and security needs of the future Grand Paris Express transport network.
This makes the technology particularly useful for mobile communications, especially between moving trains and ground systems, where it offers great flexibility. Essential for the management and safety of rail transport networks, this solution meets key needs for the modernization of rail and public transport networks.
For the three lines 15, 16 and 17, Ineo Infracom, Ineo UTS, Ineo Rail and Nokia are also designing, building and maintaining the 4G radio equipment.
It's a real technical challenge: to become the 1st private 4G network for the operational needs of RATP, the future operator of these lines, with indoor geolocation of its employees.
This includes 49 GPE stations, 133 ancillary structures, 4 maintenance sites, 2 PCCs + 1 back-up PCC, around 130 km of track and 159 trains.
The radio solution combining voice, data and images will enable telephone communications, the sending/receiving of files and the transport of on-board video surveillance images, carried at several Mbit/s.
Equans is also involved in the operational maintenance, installation and servicing of new cameras in the Grand Paris area. In this area, Equans is integrating the video protection system to ensure the safety of urban spaces.
