
Oc’Via

14% of the time worked on the project has been devoted to social inclusion programmes
Up to 4,500 people worked on the construction phase at peak times
126 protected species were identified along the line
188 engineering structures, i.e. approximately 1 every 400 m
80 km of new mixed line, passenger and freight
Oc’Via was awarded the private-public partnership concession contract for the Nîmes-Montpellier rail by-pass. Under this agreement signed in June 2012 with SNCF Réseau, Oc’Via is responsible for funding, designing, building and maintaining this new railway line until 2037.
Designed to handle passenger and freight traffic, the Nîmes-Montpellier rail by-pass is the first mixed traffic high speed line.
Journey times between Paris and Montpellier of less than 3 hours
October 2017
Faster flowing traffic on the existing line due to the diversion of freight trains and some high speed trains
€1.8 billion for the new line, €1.2 billion of which came from the private sector.
June 2012
Start of contract
Jul 2012 –end of 2013
Design phase
End 2013
Start of earthworks and civil engineering work
End 2015
Start of work to install railway equipment
Mid 2017
Testing
End 2017
Start of commercial service
From the very outset, Oc’Via struck a balance between environmental concerns and technical constraints, introducing mitigation and compensatory measures in partnership with local environmental authorities to protect flora and fauna along the railway corridor. During the construction phase for example, artificial homes were created to protect certain species.
Set up before the start of construction work and for a duration stretching up to five years after the commissioning of the line, this Monitoring Unit assesses the impact of the project on the environment and tracks the deployment and efficiency of the mitigation measures.
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