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Webuild unveils Mireillle the TBM for Grand Paris Express Line 16

Webuild has unveiled the tunnel-boring machine (TBM), called "Mireille", that will this month start excavating a 5.3km section of the metro tunnel for Line 16 in northern Paris, part of Europe’s most ambitious infrastructure project, the Grand Paris Express.

The eighth TBM to start working on the line, Mireille was named by students from nearby schools after Mireille Agletiner, a retired professor and city activist.  

It will excavate between Bel-Air à Chelles and Mare au Chanvre à Sevran, crossing the municipalities of Montfermeil, Clichy-sous-Bois, Livry Gargan and Sevran.

Line 16 is the second line of the Grand Paris Express on which Webuild is working.

Local students named the TBM after Mireille Agletiner, a retired professor and a city activist (Société du Grand Paris/Gérard Rollando)

The first is a section of Line 14 South, which Webuild and its partner completed excavating with a TBM breakthrough at the site of the future Pont de Rungis station in southern Paris a few months earlier.

That section, Lot 4, runs for 4.05 kilometres. Line 14 South will improve connections and travel times between Paris-Orly airport and the city centre.

The Grand Paris Express will extend the French capital’s metro and light rail network by 200 kilometres and 68 stations to improve connections between the centre and the periphery.

Top image: "Mireille" will start excavating a 5.3km section of Line 16 of the Grand Paris Express later this month (Société du Grand Paris/Gérard Rollando)

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