The White House Station of the Grand Paris Express Project

Abstract

The White House Station of the Paris metro Line 14 is part of Grand Paris Express, the largest metro project underway in Europe. It includes an underground station, a tunnel built by conventional tunnelling methods and a connection to the existing Paris metro Line 7. This paper describes its structural design, risk and structural analyses, construction and monitoring. The project is located in a dense urban environment with high risks relating to geology (fractured limestone, swelling clay) and sensitive neighbouring structures (high-rise buildings and an existing metro line). Based on past experience and geotechnical analysis of the site investigations results, the design of the station included overcut diaphragm walls (1.5 m wide, 47 m deep), cross-walls (0.63 m wide, 6 m high) and slabs (20 m wide, 120 m long and 1.5 m thick). To understand the soil-structure interaction for the existing and new structures, a three-dimensional finite element model was developed and parametric studies were performed. Owing to planning restrictions, construction works were phased concurrently with a significant amount of demolition. To observe the real-time behaviour of soils and structures, a substantial monitoring system was utilised and continuous geotechnical observations were carried out.

Keywords:

• 3D finite element soil–structure interaction analysis
• Paris swelling plastic clay
• underground station
• cross-walls
• tunnel
• risk management

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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