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

  • Volvo CE’s Carl Slotte explains the division’s current line-up
    October 11, 2017
    Next year Volvo CE will be testing electric, hybrid and autonomous vehicles in a quarry. Carl Slotte, head of sales for EMEA, says no company by itself will win market share. David Arminas reports from Germany The driver of the charter bus stood outside the hotel in Trier, Germany, and waved at a passing local city bus. “I know the driver,” he told one of the assembled journalists waiting for the group’s ride to the nearby Volvo CE plant. “He is retired but they brought him back because young people th
  • Doka Group expands with Australian acquisition
    July 24, 2014
    The Doka Group continues to expand its operations with the acquisition of an Australian company. Called Lubeca, this firm was the former formwork technology department of its previous owner, the Australian contractor Grocon. Doka acquired the formwork patent for the Lubeca Jumpform system, along with employees and a project portfolio from Grocon. The acquisition will strengthen Doka’s presence in Australia through its new Melbourne-based subsidiary operation, as well as in the Middle East and East Asia. Dok
  • Pressure is on Superslim formwork
    February 4, 2025
    Temporary works specialist Altrad RMD Kwikform - Altrad RMDK - is helping realign the A452 road over a new rail line for England’s future high-speed trains.
  • Automated testing is safer, cheaper and more thorough
    May 10, 2019
    New tests for cracking and rutting are easy to perform, use existing equipment and work well on mixes with different binders and recycled content - Kristina Smith writes Researchers at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) have developed new tests for cracking and rutting, designed to be quick and easy to carry out, using existing laboratory equipment. The most advanced of these is the IDEAL Cracking Test (IDEAL-CT), which could be appearing in specifications in some of the US states in around six