The Global Light Rail Awards in the category “Outstanding engineering achievement” won by Egis for its collaborative working and technical project reviews using digital model on Marseille LRT project

Extensions for improved services to both North and South of the City

To guarantee the appeal of the tram system, its scalability and the urban redevelopment of the corridors and emblematic squares through which it runs, a new project to extend the Aix Marseille Provence Métropole LRT network north and south was launched in 2017. These extensions will help create a genuine backbone of mobility within the Marseille urban area

In 2017, Egis, leader of the consortium alongside its partners Stoa Architecture and Carta Associés Architecture won the contract for EPCM services for the north and south extensions to Marseille LRT network and the creation of a maintenance and stabling facility
Bim at the heart of the project to facilitate collaborative working.

At the start of the project, Egis chose to use BIM to design the future light rail maintenance and storage facility (MSF) at Dromel - Montfuron, as well as all the infrastructure to be built around Place Castellane, a sensitive urban sector in terms of streetscape.

This first experiment in the BIM modelling of linear infrastructure and the maintenance and storage building, conducted in the preliminary design phase, proved to be a huge success. In 2018, it allowed us to consolidate all the design work, especially in view of the interfaces with the many existing structures and underground networks. It also facilitated the discussion with the project owner and stakeholders, helping them better understand all the technical and insertion issues arising. This "technical" digital model also became a communication media for political decision-makers, local residents and high street traders in the area through a video allowing them to walk around a virtual simulation of the newly refurbished Place Castellane. Following these initial positive results, Egis decided to continue with the same approach in final design phase, extending it to the whole project.

Egis has developed new collaborative practices and technical project reviews using the BIM digital model. Complex projects such as the Marseille tram draw on the expertise of a wide range of specialists who do not all hail from the same world. The digital model may not turn their world upside down, but it acts as a “frontier object” to them, i.e. an intelligible medium to help them understand one another more easily, without requiring any particular translation effort.