Global building materials company CEMEX has contributed to the renovations and extensions of three different urban rail systems in Marseille, Lyon and Saint-Étienne, France.

 In Marseille, CEMEX is providing 15 different formulas of high-strength, ready-mix concretes for the construction of a vast new underground metropolitan rail station. The station’s architectural demands required continual CEMEX inventiveness. In particular, they required the same colour for all of the ready-mix concrete, despite the fact that colour varies with each ready-mix concrete formula. The solution was to add slag to lighten the ready-mix concrete—adjusting the additive quantity for each formula to meet the mechanical and aesthetic requirements of the project.

From the south of France to the Rhône-Alpes region, CEMEX also supplied a rail line in the city of Lyon. CEMEX provided fibre-reinforced ready-mix concrete to fill in the bed under the 800 metres of rails comprising the city’s tramline extension to serve the Grand Stade, a football stadium currently under construction at Décines-Charpieu. On certain parts of the route, particularly around the switches, classic metal reinforcement posed challenges. After several tests, CEMEX found a solution—using ready-mix concrete with the addition of metal fibres, which were inserted directly into the mixer when the ready-mix concrete was made. This rigorous batch-by-batch process utilised 21 metric tons of metal fibres in five phases, with CEMEX’s teams ensuring precise deliveries to provide specific fibre density and optimal implementation. The Lyon tramline extension not only demonstrated the outstanding adaptability of CEMEX’s specialty ready-mix concretes, but also the skill of CEMEX’s teams at tailoring novel solutions to suit their clients’ needs.

Also, CEMEX’s logistical skills met the demanding deadlines of the city of Saint-Étienne as they repaired one of the oldest tramlines in France. Coordination between CEMEX and the site managers was required for CEMEX to deliver the ready-mix concrete for the track’s foundation. Beyond specific temperature requirements, they needed to restart tram traffic as rapidly as possible and quickly free up the lane occupied by the pump and mixer trucks, while ensuring continuous ready-mix concrete pouring. On the first day, five semi-trailers of aggregates, three cement trucks, and seven ready-mix concrete mixer trucks combined to accomplish non-stop production on all of the tracks. Above and beyond the performance of its products, CEMEX offered a tailored logistical solution that overcame the constraints of this major urban project.

CEMEX expects to continue providing its expertise on rail lines in France, having just announced the creation of a dedicated task force focusing exclusively on the various projects within the “Grand Paris” urban planning scheme, particularly the Grand Paris Express. Previously CEMEX supplied ready-mix concrete for a “greener” tram line in Le Havre.