Skip to main content

Doka eyes Grand Paris project

A huge tunnel formwork takes centre stage on Doka’s stand at Intermat, as the French arm of the business looks to Europe’s biggest infrastructure project, the €38.5 billion Grand Paris Express metro. “In the last few years, Doka has become well-known in the residential sector in France. Now we want to show that we are experts in infrastructure as well,” says Doka France’s head of product management and marketing, Oscar Castilla. The tunnel formwork, SL1, used to form the crown of a tunnel, has recently b
April 25, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
A huge tunnel formwork takes centre stage on 203 Doka’s stand at Intermat, as the French arm of the business looks to Europe’s biggest infrastructure project, the €38.5 billion Grand Paris Express metro.


“In the last few years, Doka has become well-known in the residential sector in France. Now we want to show that we are experts in infrastructure as well,” says Doka France’s head of product management and marketing, Oscar Castilla.

The tunnel formwork, SL1, used to form the crown of a tunnel, has recently been modified so that the face-forming element is steel rather than timber. “This means that it is more durable and therefore for a long tunnel, it makes it cheaper” says Castilla. “The second advantage is that the whole thing can be rented.”

Also on display was Doka’s STAXO 100 load-bearing tower which also boasted a modification. It now includes aluminium beams to transfer load from the structure to the tower where previously timber beams were used. This allows a capacity of the tower of 10 tonnes per leg with lightweight beams that can be assembled by hand.  Doka has already secured projects on the Grand Paris programme with this product, says Castilla.

Doka’s remote concrete monitoring technology, Concremote, is also new to the French market, says Castilla, and is being deployed in several projects for the first time now. Concremote measures the strength of the concrete in real time, through monitoring the heat, which means that formwork can be struck as soon as the required strength is reached, increasing productivity and ensuring quality and safety.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Giatec promises Smart Concrete
    April 27, 2018
    Giatec’s Smart Concrete concept allows ready mix concrete suppliers to offer optimised mixes to their customers – and to charge more for them. Giatec, which makes concrete sensors and associated software and apps, works with the concrete producers to calibrate their mixes. The concrete company then supplies Giatec’s maturity monitoring sensors as part of the concrete package. “The ready mix suppliers get information straight away so that they can adjust their mixes if necessary,” says Giatec business
  • Giatec promises Smart Concrete
    April 27, 2018
    Giatec’s Smart Concrete concept allows ready mix concrete suppliers to offer optimised mixes to their customers – and to charge more for them. Giatec, which makes concrete sensors and associated software and apps, works with the concrete producers to calibrate their mixes. The concrete company then supplies Giatec’s maturity monitoring sensors as part of the concrete package. “The ready mix suppliers get information straight away so that they can adjust their mixes if necessary,” says Giatec business
  • Ambitious road tunnelling projects around the world
    November 29, 2013
    The construction of the world’s longest subsea road tunnel in Norway and a vital new link under the Bosphorus Strait in Turkey are among a host of exciting, major road tunnel-based projects currently being undertaken across the globe. Guy Woodford reports Sandvik DTi series tunnelling jumbos are being used for the excavation of Solbakktunnel, set to become the world’s longest subsea road tunnel.
  • New methods allow concrete testing on the spot
    July 20, 2015
    This month we look at two new methods which are allowing concrete to be tested on the spot, and [over the page] we catch up on the latest news from concrete testing equipment suppliers - Kristina Smith writes Sometimes test results can be very bad news. If the concrete pavement or bridge abutment has already been poured, and if the concrete does not meet the specification, the outcome could be very expensive remedial work.