- Upgrade and extension of wastewater treatment facilities
- Increase total plant capacity
- A design-build contract worth AUD $385 million (€236 million)
Icon Water, the Australian Capital Territory‘s supplier of water and wastewater services, has awarded Seymour Whyte and VINCI Construction Grands Projets – both VINCI Construction subsidiaries – the contract to upgrade and extend the existing Lower Molonglo Water Quality Control Center. This is the largest Australian inland wastewater treatment infrastructure which has been in operation since the late 1970s in Canberra.
On this 385 million AUD (€236 million) contract, the joint venture will work in a collaborative design and build approach – alongside the engineering firm BECA HunterH2O – to construct a new wastewater to increase the existing plant’s capacity.
The project will construct a new membrane bioreactor with treatment capacity of 97 Mega Litres (ML) of wastewater a day, thanks to innovative membrane treatment technology.
The joint venture has committed to implementing a wide range of measures to protect the environment, including:
- using low-carbon concrete blends to reduce carbon emissions;
- reusing 90% of materials on-site;
- supplying its site office with 100% renewable energy;
- using 100% of recycled water for construction activities.
The project is the first in a 10-year program of works and expected to commence in 2025 and to employ up to 250 people at its peak. It will upgrade plant treatment capacity and enhance wastewater services to the Canberra community.
After a successful first round, the final ceremony of the Innovation Prize was held on April 4, 2024 in Paris, bringing this 2023/2024 edition to an end.
In November 2023, the Major Projects Division of VINCI Construction launched its first 2023/2024 edition of the Innovation Awards, inviting all its employees to submit innovative projects in 6 themes: Environment, Engineering & Technologies, Health & Safety, Productivity, Management & Human Resources and Marketing & Business Development.
Of the 414 submissions received since last November, 68 had already been awarded within the various entities of the Major Projects Division: each of VINCI Construction Grands Projets’ operational divisions, Dodin Campenon Bernard, VINCI Construction GeoInfrastructure and Spiecapag.
As Patrick KADRI, CEO of the Major Projects Division, said:
“This award is the perfect embodiment of our vision of innovation within the Major Projects Division. Innovation at the service of green and sustainable growth, focused on the future”.
Discover our 9 winning innovations
Environnement – Optimizing and reducing our environmental impact – Project for the underground section of Line 18 of the Grand Paris Express, France
Engineering and Technologies – Linaster – Production monitoring tool and repository for technical project documents, VINCI Construction GeoInfrastructure
Health and safety – Automating and securing lifts in constrained environments – Femernbaelt tunnel project, Denmark
Productivity – Wooden coupler and roller system for pile recutting – Overhead section project of Line 18 of the Grand Paris Express, France
HR Management – Semillero Rosa / Pink Seedbed program – Train 130 women in construction trades and provide them with work experience on our site – Bogotá-Girardot highway widening and modernization project, Colombia
Marketing and Business Development – SMART USERS – Improving management of resource consumption such as water, heating and electricity within facilities – Rennes Airport, France
Jury’s Favourite – Progressive Employment Program (PEP) – Supporting local minorities – Springbank Water Reservoir, Canada and City Rail Link construction projects, New Zealand
Special Award – CONDOR solution – OTool for controlling the use of mobile deck equipment – Initiating Atlantic Bridge project, Panama
Major Prize – EXEGY low-carbon voussoirs – Reducing the carbon footprint of tunnel segments dug with a tunnel boring machine by almost 50%: a world first – Project for the underground section of Line 18 of the Grand Paris Express, France
The health crisis that the world is facing today is exceptionally extensive.
In all the countries where we operate, VINCI Construction Grands Projets is playing its part in efforts to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
Protecting everyone’s health and safety are our absolute priorities. VINCI Construction Grands Projets is therefore strictly applying public authorities’ recommendations.
In countries that have enforced lockdowns, we immediately took measures so that employees who can work from home are able to do so.
We will systematically help our customers and public authorities complete projects considered non-deferrable, in all cases strictly complying with measures to keep our employees and subcontractors safe.
We are mobilised, worldwide, to contribute to efforts to eradicate this pandemic and to work alongside authorities to prepare to move past this health and economic crisis as rapidly as possible.
Together, we will overcome this ordeal. All together, with our employees, customers, partners and subcontractors, we will show that we are able to rebound.
Let’s continue to build on trust.
On 15 November of this year, the joint venture formed by two VINCI Construction subsidiaries, Entrepose Contracting and VINCI Construction Grands Projets, signed an EPC* contract with Novatek subsidiary OOO OBSKY LNG to build two new cryogenic LNG tanks on the Yamal Peninsula.
“We are extremely proud and honoured that Novatek has entrusted this new project to us following the exemplary on-time, on-budget handover of the first four LNG tanks built in Sabetta for Yamal LNG. The new project is recognition of our expertise in the sector, and particularly of our ability to rise to the challenges of innovative projects to be carried out in extreme environments,” says Entreprose Contracting Managing Director Gaël Cailleaux.
“Two years after the handover of the four Yamal tanks, the challenge of designing and building tanks in this area of the world – where temperatures are below freezing eight months out of the year and can reach -50°C in winter – remains unchanged. We are fully mobilised, with the technical and innovation capabilities of our in-house design and engineering offices, to carry out this contract alongside our partners,” says Fadi Selwan, operations Director, Americas and LNG at VINCI Construction Grands Projets.
In July 2019, VINCI Construction won a contract to build an LNG tank in northern British Columbia, Canada. Having built 14 LNG tanks around the world over the past decade, VINCI Construction is widely respected for its ability to meet the expectations of the oil and gas majors in every type of environment.
*Engineering, Procurement and Construction
For the third year in a row, VINCI Construction Grands Projets has been awarded the prize in the “building projects outside France” category for its preliminary design of the Oncology Centre in Astana, Kazakhstan. The jury was won over by the collaborative process involving participants based in different continents and the implementation of a full BIM initiative for the first time in this Central Asian country. The teams also created mock-ups of more than 500 pieces of medical equipment from instruction manuals and technical fact sheets.
The winner in the “new projects over 40,000 m2” category was the Tour des Jardins de l’Arche in Paris La Défense area. This project was developed by ADIM Paris Ile-de-France (a VINCI Construction France subsidiary), responsible for project management, using 3D printing to produce a model equipped with 500 sensors for wind tunnel testing. The project structured and implemented ambitious BIM technology from the very first stages of design ranging from model creation and works package coordination to using an effective collaborative platform and process involving all the actors in the project.
Citinéa (a VINCI Construction France subsidiary) won the prize in the “renovation projects over 40,000 m2” category with its Noirettes & Grand Bois residential rehabilitation project in Vaulx-en-Velin in the Rhône region. BIM, used from the programming to operational phase, allows the numerous participants in the project to benefit from an integrated process. The joint use of 3D scanning technology to create mock-ups of existing buildings and prefabricate walls with a structural framework in wood using BIM should allow the company to implement the systemisation of the rehabilitation of 980 housing units over a nine-month construction period.
Having received five silver BIM awards since 2014*, VINCI Construction France, through its subsidiaries and engineering teams, has indisputably established its BIM expertise and know-how.
“The project included high-risks tunnelling works in a 4km tunnel (part of a 17km strategic railway line), underneath Hong Kong’s highly built-up urban areas, in close proximity to residents. In a complex geological situation, different tunnelling methods had to be used such as cut- and-cover and drill-and-blast at only 6m above a live water supply tunnel; TBM crossing twice at 6m below an operating railway line… A particularity to be mentioned is the alternative design which was used for a large-span mined soft ground tunnel to reduce construction and safety risks as well as the redesigning of the ventilation shaft to improve safety”, the ITA jury stated as it awarded the prize.
In September 2016, the Hin Keng to Diamond Hill tunnels were delivered to the client, MTR. Currently, project teams are completing exterior works and interior technical and architectural works in the shafts for final project delivery, which is set for the first part of 2018. MTR plans to launch the initial phase of the Shatin to Central Link in 2019.
At the awards ceremony, our client on the Doha metro project, Qatar Railways, received the “Major Project of the Year” award (for projects valued at more than €500 million) for its work as a whole in that country. Since June 2013, we have been taking part in this vast infrastructure project with operations on the Red Line South: a 13.8-km dual-tunnel link running from the historic district of Msheireb in central Doha to Doha Airport.
In addition, for its “Young Tunneller of the Year” award, ITA selected Tobias Andersson, a TBM manager who started his career as part of our Skanska-VINCI consortium on the Hallandsås Tunnel project in Sweden.
The project to renovate the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in London was awarded a 2016 BIM d’Or (see news); the judges’ panel for the 2017 edition has again rewarded us in the “International category.” Consequently, the project to expand Santiago Airport in Chile has been recognised as an initiative that fosters the active deployment of BIM. In fact, the use of BIM as early as the project study phase allowed VINCI Construction Grands Projets to validate design decisions with the client quickly and efficiently in the lead-up to the construction phase.
The use of this modelling resource enabled us to take multiple factors into account and find solutions for challenges, including managing the flow of passengers between the domestic and international zones, optimising the placement of shops, and streamlining airport safety requirements. Yet another issue was to ensure full interoperability between the building information models that were part of project delivery and the operational solution selected by the concession-holder.
Implementation of BIM at the start of the project study phase enabled us to deploy innovative collaborative processes for design development and consolidation, work planning and scheduling (with 3D phasing), and quantified budget-monitoring. Currently, new functionalities, such as the application of on-site controls with data capture and the monitoring of corrective action are being deployed for the construction phase. You can view the complete of 2017 winners (in French) here.
Following delivery of the extension to the Niroth plant in Phnom Penh earlier this year, VINCI Construction Grands Projets signed a new water-management contract on August 8 in the Cambodian capital. This contract, valued at US$23.5 million, calls for rebuilding the Chamkar Mon water treatment plant, located right in the city of Phnom Penh. The project will receive financing from Agence Française de Développement (AFD).
Starting in September, our teams will begin demolishing the existing plant, which has a capacity of 20,000 cubic metres a day. Subsequently, they will design-build a new plant with a much-improved capacity of 52,000 cubic metres a day. The project will require two years to complete.
The second contract, valued at US$10.4 million, was signed on June 22, 2017 and concerns the water treatment plant in Siem Reap. This project involves designing and building a water-intake structure with a capacity of 30,000 cubic metres a day, increasing the plant’s current production capacity by 15,000 cubic metres a day, and installing a 6.5-km transfer pipe.
The contract calls for 14 months of construction and 4 months of start-up operations. Tourism development in Siem Reap, the site of the Angkor Wat temple complex, is what is driving the growing need for water.
The SEA HSL Tours-Bordeaux was inaugurated on 28 February 2017 in Villognon (western France), in the presence of French President François Hollande and of Alain Rousset, president of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, Xavier Huillard, chairman & CEO of VINCI, Laurent Cavrois, chairman of Lisea and Patrick Jeantet, chairman of SNCF Réseau.
The Group’s various business lines all contributed to what has been the biggest railway project in Europe and the biggest project ever in the history of VINCI. Due to come into service on 2 July 2017, the line will mean a journey time between Bordeaux and Paris of 2 hours and 4 minutes.
Its construction was completed in record time, ahead of the contractually agreed schedule (i.e. six years of planning and works). This concession has enabled 302 km of high-speed line to be built between Saint-Avertin (central France) and Ambarès-et-Lagrave (west of France) as well as the 38 km of the 10 connecting lines linking the new line to the urban centres in the south-west of France. In total, almost 10,000 employees participated in the implementation of this project.
Xavier Huillard underlined the great performance of the construction teams with 37 million manoirs without severe accident. The French President François Hollande said the project deserves “all superlatives”.
The opening of this infrastructure connecting Louisville, Kentucky and southern Indiana improves traffic flow and safety. The concession consortium led by VINCI Highways, VINCI Concessions’ subsidiary, is responsible for operation and maintenance of a major portion of the East End Crossing infrastructure for a period of 35 years. The consortium will be remunerated via availability-based fees.
The project was carried out under a PPP contract with a value of nearly $1 billion (€956 billion) signed in March 2013 by Indiana Finance Authority and the concession company WVB East End Partners, made up, in equal shares, of VINCI Highways, Walsh Investors and Bilfinger PI. It is one of the largest transportation improvement projects in the United States and VINCI’s first road infrastructure PPP in that country.
The opening of the motorway to the public marks the culmination of four years of design and construction work carried out by a joint venture made up of Walsh Construction (60%) and VINCI Construction Grands Projets (40%).
The new infrastructure includes a 762 metres cable-stayed bridge over the Ohio River with two iconic diamond-shaped piers, a 512 metres dual-tube tunnel on the Kentucky approach to the bridge, 19 standard engineering structures and road network and associated infrastructure upgrades. The construction phase was successful in terms of safety, with more than 1,100 days worked without lost-time accident.
Exemplary social, environmental and economic impact
The social and economic impact of the project, planned for half a century, will be reflected through the creation of thousands of jobs in the two states in coming years. In November 2016 the project received an EnvisionTM Platinum Award (Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure – Harvard Graduate School of Design) for its sustainable design, construction and operation.
The handover of this infrastructure constitutes a further success for VINCI’s design-build and concession model. United States is the Group’s fourth market.
