Facts
Location
Orcines, France
Nemetschek Group Brands
ALLPLAN
Scope
Train station for 380,000 tourists annually
Rack railway instead of buses saves 150 tons of CO2 annually
3,600 m² of circular double walls
Sustainability in action
Where not long ago up to 380,000 visitors used to climb to the summit by shuttle bus, a state-of-the-art rack railway now transports tourists to the mountain summit in a sustainable manner.
In this way, over 35 years, more than 5,250 tonnes of CO2 can be saved. The bus parking areas have been renaturalised and even the mountain railway station is hidden underground to restore the summit, at least in part, to its natural state. The underground station provides shelter from the extreme weather for up to 1,000 visitors at a time, while offering a magnificent view of the surrounding mountain peaks.
Due to the challenging logistics and the unpredictability of the weather, precast elements were used for the mountain station. The concrete elements were prefabricated to the highest quality in factory buildings and transported to the construction site. This facilitated the logistics considerably, increased the precision and quality of the concrete parts and enabled production independent of the weather.
In view of the restrictions at the construction site, it was preferred to build the infrastructure with prefabricated elements instead of on-site concrete. Rector Lesage has been relying on Allplan's precast design and detailing software Planbarfor many years.
