VERSAILLES FRANCE:Revolutionary A86-West Tunnel Back on Track

“Late September we finalized all the substantial issues of the new contract with the French Government and we now just have a few formalities, minor drafting issues, before we sign,” we were told in a telephone interview with Francois Molle, a VP at Cofiroute in Paris. Also resolved in Cofiroute’s favor was further litigation by a challenger for the concession, Arys, a group led by Bouygues.

The settlement with the Government includes a $50m payment to Cofiroute in settlement of its compensation claims for the stop-work order. Molle said the settlement was a ‘package deal’ and that the company suffered a much larger loss than $50m but has worked out other offsetting savings acceptable to the government in the interim.

The A86 tunnel project consists of (1) a more eastward 10km (6mi) long driven tunnel of interior usable diameter of 10.1m (33’) divided into 2-levels for low vehicles less than 2m (79”) with 3-lanes each level (2) to the west a 7.5km (4.6mi) tunnel 10.7m (35’) interior diameter for one lane each direction for all heights of vehicles up 4.5m (14’9). The light vehicles tunnel will have 3m (10’) wide lanes, grades of up to 4.5% and a maximum speed of 70km/hr (42mph). It will have two intermediate interchanges. A northern section will be opened to traffic before the southern section is complete. It could carry up to 10,000 veh/hr but variable tolls will be used to maximize revenues and to prevent overloading and traffic slowdowns. Average tolls will be $4 for the full distance trip.

The 2x1-lane all-vehicles tunnel will have no intermediate interchange, maximum grade of 1.5% and a speed limit of 60km/hr (37mph) and is designed to operate up to 3,000 veh/hr. Tolls will be about twice those of the low-vehicles tunnel. Work will start on the all-vehicles tunnel close to the time of completion of the low-vehicles tunnel. In the low-vehicles tunnel the third righthand lane will be used to start with as a shoulder or merge/diverge lane.

In tunnels capital cost is closely related to the volume of material removed. By segregating small vehicles which constitute some 80 to 90 percent of the traffic flow, they can be accomodated far more economically than in a mixed vehicle structure. Segregation also has the advantage that ramps can be steeper and turns tighter in the light vehicles tunnel. The tunnels fill a missing link in the A86, an outer ring motorway around the larger Paris area. Efforts to build this leg of the motorway on the surface, or even in a mix of trench and tunnel, ran into overwhelming opposition because of the historic and beautiful character of the area around Versailles.

Cofiroute reports $159m profit

Cofiroute, the major investor owned toll company in France reports $159m profit for 1998 on toll revenues of $828m. Tolls were up 9.5% over the previous year. French taxes were the company’s biggest expense by far – $178m – followed by interest on borrowings $113m, payroll and employee benefits $84m, amortization $70m, depreciation $33m, and repairs $36m. $79m in dividends were paid to shareholders.

Cofiroute raised tolls 4.7% and traffic grew 3.3% to an average of 241k tolls/day. The company operates 797km (486mi) of toll motorway west and south of Paris, these being radials from the French capital to Le Mans (A11), Orleans and Tours (A10), and Verzon and Bourge (A71). It has under construction, or in plan, another 311km (190mi) of linking roadways (A28, A85) cutting across the radials. 46km (28mi) of new pike is due to open mid-2001. Also 50km (30mi) of the heavily trafficked A11 is being widened from 2 to 3-lanes each direction. Average daily traffic is 70k at its largest St Arnoult toll plaza, 29k at Monnaie and 27k at Sorigny. It has 5 mainline plazas and 41 others, 42 service areas. Trucks are 20% of traffic and a much higher proportion of revenue. The average trip on the system is 91km (55mi) and the average toll paid – trucks and cars – is just under $10.

7,653m veh-km were traveled on the system indicating an average toll of 10.8c/veh-km, 17c/mi. Northeast portions of the system carry heavy commuter and Paris area traffic, as do sections around Orlean, Tours and Nantes but the system is basically interurban or rural.

Self-swiped magstripe cards including bank cards, and credit cards account for just 50% of toll revenue taken, cash and checks given to toll attendants 31%, and electronic toll transponders 19%. The tollster is gearing up to accept payment in Euros. The company employs 1,945 of whom 338 are toll collectors.

A major setback to the company was the Feb 98 decision by a court to cancel Cofiroute’s concession for the A86-West toll tunnel project in the Versailles area. The court found the French government had failed to advertise the concession according to European Community rules. Over a year’s work had been done on the tunnel and 320 workers were laid off. The annual report says this was “extremely prejudicial” financially and it negotiated compensation. Cofiroute won the competition in a second round of bidding from Arys, a Bouygues-led consortium, but litigation held up the re-award of the concession. (see report p8)

91X lost 15%

Cofiroute has interests in several toll projects outside France. It is one of three partners in 91-Express Lanes in California. It reports that the opening of the competitive Eastern Toll Road by the TCA in Oct 98 reduced traffic by 15%, a number never released by the US management. Cofiroute says this drop was anticipated in the traffic forecasts.

Cofiroute has consulting jobs on toll roads in Brazil including the Rio-Sao Paulo ‘Dutra’ toll road and the Rodonorte in Parana state. It is involved in technical assistance in Mexico, Portugal and Argentina. It has a toll operating contract for the Severn River toll bridges in the UK.

In his annual report CEO Jean-Francois Poupinel reflects that his company needs not only to be able to design, build and operate roads but to forecast traffic, manage safety, deal with environmentalist demands, and get along with local comunities, elected officials and the media

“A thousand different skills” are needed, Poupinel writes. (www.cofiroute.fr)