Extension of Line 1 of Lille City Metro

Abstract

<p>The Lille city metro, in north of France, was opened in 1983. It was the first automatic metro line in the world, with the VAL technology (Light Automatic Vehicle).</p><p>Thirty years later, it was decided to renovate the line but mainly to double its capacity, increasing train cars length from 26m to 52m. It is an important technical challenge, because modernization, renovation and civil works on the 13.5km of the line shall be done without any impact on metro traffic and station operation.</p><p>Three major difficulties had lot of influence on design and civil works. First, the design should be compatible with structural capacity of existing stations and reduced documentation available about them. Then, design, organization and construction schedule should be compatible with urban environment, and overall with the major criteria of no interruption of metro traffic and station operation during all years of works. At least, management of all interfaces between different packages of the project was complex.</p>