April 15th, 2022
Soletanche Bachy Fondations Spéciales steps in to preserve biodiversity
Following more than two years of work, the Bièvre is flowing in the open once more.
Having been covered over along part of its course at the start of the 20th century, the Bièvre has been the subject of a major development project undertaken in the Val-de-Marne over the past decade. The objective was not only to make it visible again, but to restore nature by recreating a real river. After the reopening of a section in L’Haÿ-les-Roses in 2016, the Bièvre renaissance project continued with the opening of a further section in Arcueil and Gentilly.
This large-scale operation was part of a financial partnership between the Val-de-Marne department (as project owner), the Grand Paris intermunicipal authority, the Seine-Normandy water agency and the Île-de-France region.
The project involved reopening a 610m section between Rue Gandilhon in Gentilly and Avenue Paul Doumer in Arcueil.
Soletanche Bachy Fondations Spéciales participated in this project as part of a consortium with Valentin TP & France Travaux. The works undertaken by SBFS involved building definitive lutetian-type walls along a length of approximately 340m, walls allowing a widening of the bed of the watercourse, hitherto channelled within a masonry gutter below the level of the existing ground, while preserving the rights of way for public roads and pedestrians, as well as common property facilities such as sports fields or footbridges in the Coteau de Bièvre park.
After preparations were slowed by the Covid-19 pandemic and numerous adjustments made to the project geometry (related to site constraints), initial work on the lutetian-type walls began in August 2020 and was completed in October 2021. The Valentin TP and France Travaux teams then took over to complete the project a few weeks ago.
