Work on the Cornavin-Eaux-Vives-Annemasse (CEVA) Rail Link Begins

The CEVA project is a springboard for the City of Geneva which, said State Councillor Mark Muller, “will move it into the ‘major city’ category.” The beginning of the work not only marks the end of an interminable wait (occasioned by heavy opposition), but also symbolises the end of a railway dead-end separating Geneva from its neighbours.

The joining of the Geneva and Rhone-Alps rail systems will link 230 km of rail having a total of 40 stations. In the future, the trip between Versoix and Geneva’s University Hospitals will take only 27 minutes instead of hours, according to Michèle Kuenzler, the magistrate responsible for Mobility, and the trip from Bern to Annemasse only 2 hours and 7 minutes.

This regional express line, which resembles a subway (with two-thirds of the line being underground), will run for 16 km, including 2 km in France. 

The large-scale CEVA project will require participation by 25 firms, represented by three to four hundred workers, over six years. Its other features include:

• 5 stations and stops (not counting Cornavin and Annemasse)
• 20 kmof new road without ballast
• 3.7 km of tunnels
• 3.6 km of covered trenches
• 2 bridges
• 200 kmof new cable
• 1.9 million m³ of excavation
• 15 kV (electricity supplied by Switzerland all the way to the Annemasse station)

Beginning in January 2012, work will commence all along the line in Switzerland (except in the Champel tunnel, where the Swiss Federal Supreme Court has upheld the suspension of work due to complaints by local residents). The line is expected to be in service in 2017.

BG is contributing to this endeavour through its Infrastructures & Transports division, which has civil and electromechanical engineering contracts.

In the civil engineering area, BG is heading up the GE-Pinchat group (BG-SDingénierie-Solfor-GADZ), which is responsible for project management in sector 3. This involves work on the underground Carouge Bachet station and the 2-km Pinchat tunnel, which is being excavated in loose soils. Preparatory work will begin in early 2012 for the station and in July 2012 for the tunnel.

BG is also involved in the following electromechanical engineering contracts:

• Prime contractor for all ventilation, lighting, sanitary, fire prevention, and high- and low-voltage electrical equipment for the operation, monitoring and safety of the stations and stops, as well as the low-voltage railway technology for the tunnels and covered trenches.
• Executive project management in association with the PKAG company, for railway engineering equipment, contact line, telecommunications, safety facilities and cables.

For more information:

• View the project
• Visit CEVA website