FRANCE Delay in A86-W toll tunnel

FRANCE

Delay in A86-W toll tunnel

Cofiroute was ordered to cease construction late February at its A86-W toll tunnel in the Versailles area west of Paris. Opponents of the tunnel have apparently managed to delay the innovative road project about a year with a decision by the State Council (Conseil d’Etat) that the concession issued back in 1992 did not conform with legal requirements of the European Community for European-wide requests for proposals.

Work started late-96 on the 10km long toll tunnel which provides for 2 levels of up to 3-lanes each level for low-clearance (2m max height) vehicles. The toll tunnel, entirely investor-financed, will provide a missing link in an outer beltway around the Paris region. Cofiroute’s concession also provides for a second shorter (7.5km) 2-lane toll tunnel to be built further west with clearance for heavy trucks.

Just this month the French Ministry of Equipment and Transport issued a new set of requests-for-proposals for the concession on the A86-W tunnels to meet the legal objections that the Conseil d’Etat used to invalidate the Cofiroute franchise. A Cofiroute spokesman told us in a call to Paris that the company is reapplying for the concession and hopes to win the right to resume work and complete the project. No other group is known to be planning to enter a competing proposal, but there are about two months before the deadline.

Cofiroute has already spent over $200m (F1.5b) on the project covering design, purchase of a large tunnel boring machine, early works at the portals and ventilation/emergency access tubes, and materials. The whole project is estimated to cost $2b (F12b) and was to open in 2003. Cofiroute was about to start on mainline tunneling with the 10m diameter tunnel boring machine when the French high court issued its decision that the concession was invalid. The French government then asked Cofiroute to stop any new work and finish up and make safe sections of the work under construction.

Cofiroute says that it will seek compensation for its expenditures if the concession is awarded to another company.

The project originated in a proposal by Cofiroute which is the largest investor-financed toll road company in France. It followed 30 years of efforts to find an acceptable surface right of way through an area riddled with historic buildings, much prized woods, and villas.

It will be the first large scale application of the so-called MetroRoute concept of low-clearance tunnels, for which standards have been set by French authorities. About 90% of traffic in the Paris region can fit under the 2m clearance. The actual tunnel ceiling will be at 2.55m. Lanes will be 2.9m width (vs the usual 3.6m for mixed traffic) and a speed limit of 70km/hr. Exclusion of heavy vehicles allows up to 6-lanes to be accomodated in the same tunnel tube needed for just two lanes normally (see top right). Further advantages are that ramps can be tighter and steeper (12% will be the limit vs 5% on mixed traffic ramps.) The doubledeck arrangement simplifies underground interchanges and emergency access and evacuations, though special low emergency vehicles will have to be built.

The Paris regional plan for 2015 lays out 100km of MetroRoutes, and they have also been considered for a new motorway to the Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport and as additional capacity for the southern part of the Boulevard Peripherique, or inner ring road.

In New York City the Regional Plan Association is studying the concept for application in Brooklyn as a possible configuration in an underground alternative to the old elevated Gowanus Expressway (I-278) between the Verrazano Narrows bridge and the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. The Brooklyn-Queens Exwy is another possible candidate when it comes due for replacement. A kind of mezzanine suspended deck, that is a variant, has been proposed for the Eisenhower tunnel on I-70 west of Denver CO to alleviate congestion between Denver airport and the ski fields.

Given the higher proportion of vans and big wheeled sports utilities in the US vehicle fleet, any US application of the principle might involve slightly more generous dimensions than the French. The big question is whether the French will assert a patent right on the idea and demand, say, a one Franc (20c) commission on each toll on such facilities. (See TRnl#6 Aug 96 p1, TRnl#12 Feb 97 p1. An excellent outline of the state-of-the-art small-gauge urban road tunnels, known as MetroRoutes is contained in the indispensible Christian Gerondeau “Transport in Europe” Artech House Boston MA 1997 ISBN 0-89006-931-X 617 769 9750. Contacts Karine Bussone, Ministry Transport 33 1 4081 1862 bussone@dr.equipment.gouv.fr; Francois Molle, Cofiroute 33 1 41 14 7378)