July 16th, 2021
Soletanche Bachy Fondations Spéciales carries out the foundations for a prison complex in Gradignan near Bordeaux
The SBFS construction teams will be kept busy this summer!
At the end of 2019, GTM Bâtiment Aquitaine was awarded a design-and-build project by the APIJ (French management agency for judicial real estate). At the start of 2020, the Soletanche Bachy Fondations Spéciales agency in the south of France began working with the GTM studies/works teams to prepare for the acquisition of this new site in 2021.
The overall project involves building an autonomous prison complex on the northern part of the existing site by 2022, including accommodation buildings and premises dedicated to support functions, workshops, visiting rooms, activity areas, a healthcare unit, etc. Once the detainees have been transferred and one of the two existing prison buildings has been demolished, additional accommodation buildings will be built by 2024. The project is expected to increase the accommodation capacity from 450 to 600 detainees.
The consortium will install 791 foundation piles, requiring 1200m3 of concrete and 45 tonnes of reinforcements to be laid.
The project’s dimensioning and foundation solutions were optimised by combining various techniques developed by SBFS: Starsol®, T-pile® & Refsol ®.
The tight schedule was a major challenge for the project, with a partial deadline for each of the 10 buildings to be constructed. Careful phasing was defined in coordination with the structural work teams – and their six cranes – as well as the earthworks package.
The piling work began in mid-June and is set to last 11 weeks.
