Grand Paris Express – Line 14

The Grand Paris Express is a major urban transport project taking place throughout the French capital. The project will add four new lines (lines 15, 16, 17, and 18) and extend two existing lines (11 and 14).

Dextra has been involved in several station packages through its local distributor partners. On line 14 in particular, Dextra supplied Fortec rebar couplers in the stations of Orsay and Pont Cardinet.

For Bagneux Station in the north of Paris, located at the intersection of metro line 4 and the future line 15, Dextra supplied its ASTEC Active Anchors.

ASTEC Active Anchors are the preferred solution for subway station works as tunnel boring machines and earth-moving equipment can simply cut the FRP tendons of the anchors at any stage, eliminating the need for unreliable and costly anchor removal. The solution was approved for this project by the consulting firm SYSTRA.

Following numerous successful projects in the Middle East, this was the first time ASTEC Active Anchors (a recent Dextra innovation) were installed in Europe.

Doha Metro Msheireb Station

Msheireb Station is the major interchange station of the Doha Metro. Located in Downtown Doha, it connects all of three lines (Red, Green and Gold) and will provide a gateway 2022 FIFA World Cup 2022 stadiums

The Msheireb Station will become one of the largest subway stations in the world by size.

Soft-Eyes for TBMs

For this major project, Dextra engineered and supplied between 2013 and 2015 8 large ASTEC GFRP Soft-Eyes, of a diameter of 8 meters each. Soft Eyes are cages of GFRP rebar, positioned into the D-Walls in-between steel segments. GFRP Soft-Eyes allow Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) to go through in a minimum time as the bars can be easily crushed by the tunnel machine.

Tie-Back anchors

To anchor the massive d-walls and prevent any soil displacement during excavation works, Dextra also supplied its ASTEC Active Anchors (AAA). Those innovative post-tensioned GFRP-based anchors, have the benefits of being cut by the Tunnel Boring Machines or standard excavation equipment. Because it can be easily cut, it doesn’t need to be removed from the ground, even when used for temporary applications.

In the case of the Msheireb stations, multi-tendons anchors (10 per anchor on this project) have even been installed in the center of Soft-Eye to anchor the D-Wall. Those anchors were also cut during the tunneling break-through (visible in the video below). In total 150 anchors were installed in the station.

Tag: active anchors