On 9 October 2008 RhônExpress started construction works for the Leslys tram system, a 7 km long line which will connect Part-Dieu to Lyon Saint-Exupéry Airport from August 2010. Cegelec is responsible for the new line’s electrification, which comprises two new sub-stations and the overhead contact line.
Three questions to Franck Lepoivre, director of Cegelec Transport's public transport unit.
- How is an overhead line installed? What are the main problems with such a task, in particular for the Rhônexpress site?
First of all, you must remember that Leslys is a tram-train which combines both the features of a tram system working with an overhead contact line (with a supply voltage of 750V DC) and those of a train operating under a catenary (speed 100 km/h). Consequently, we thought up an innovative design for the electrification of Leslys, consisting of both overhead contact line principles such as the dual track console on a single post and catenary principles such as the association of a bearer cable and a contact wire. Cegelec Transport's extensive engineering experience in overhead contact lines and with catenaries was essential to succeed with such a design.
In installation terms, we expect to deploy mixed site teams consisting of technicians skilled in overhead contact line engineering and experts in catenary engineering, in order to benefit from the experience in each speciality. The principal difficulties which we expect to encounter on the RhônExpress do not relate directly to our installations but rather their insertion into their immediate environment. Indeed, the Leslys Maintenance Centre is located under the 400,000V and 225,000V grid lines and the point of arrival at Saint-Exupéry Airport is next to the Paris-Marseilles high-speed train line. These particular factors mean that we must institute unusual working practices, in particular to put in the caulking for the posts in complete safety.
- How many of Cegelec's people are working on this project?
Leslys is a design and construction project. For Cegelec, the task began well upstream with the feasibility study, preliminary design phase and finally production, which meant deploying a team of 5 led by two technical project leaders. Two buyers were allocated to purchasing. The practical organisation of the construction site (logistics, etc.) will be managed by a site manager and a site foreman and we are planning that the installation of the sub-stations and of the LAC will need a team of 20. Finally, the whole of this design, purchase and site study team, is controlled by a full time project manager.
- What experience does Cegelec have in this field?
We built, or are currently building, high voltage or low voltage electrical infrastructures (signalling systems, traffic safety, station lighting, signing, etc.) for tram and metro systems in some twenty French towns and cities, including the tram line Lea in Lyon. We have also just started the site for the future tram system for Rabat in Morocco. We specialise in overhead contact lines as well as catenaries for rail systems: 2,000 km of lines to our credit, in France and worldwide, in particular in Morocco and South Korea, for conventional and high speed lines.