Re-coating Paris Metro without disruption for passengers
Having worked with Hempel on RATP’s Line 6 project, LASSARAT has placed its trust in the company again. This time, it is taking care of the anticorrosive coatings required for an inter-station section of Line 2 between Colonel Fabien and Anvers.
The history behind the project
Line 2 was built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its first section opened between Porte Dauphine and Étoile in December 1900, before it was extended in October 1902 to Anvers and, months later, to Rue de Bagnolet (now known as Alexandre Dumas). The line ran the entirety of its current length for the first time in April 1903, as it was able to open in full at that moment because its terminus, Nation, was ready for trains. During a recent meeting, RATP officials explained that the type of maintenance the tunnel required should be carried out every 18 to 20 years. The time had come.
The project has showcased LASSARAT’s technical and environmental expertise in that it has been carried out right in the heart of Paris, to a schedule dictated by the Metro trains’ and local residents’ travel needs. The objective was to abrasively blast and paint 35,000 m² of surfaces within a 16-month period – without interrupting the flow of Metro trains. In order to take into account the project’s specific features and the many intersections that needed to be treated one after another, LASSARAT’s technical and innovation centre modified the company’s equipment to make it extremely mobile and adaptable to the various limiting conditions that the worksites presented along the 2.2 km viaduct.
The ACQPA C4 AMV 931 coatings system used is made up of three layers:
• 1 primary layer (120μm) of Hempadur 47960 red-brown epoxy
• 1 intermediary layer (120μm) of Hempadur 47960 dark grey epoxy
• 1 topcoat (40μm) of Hempathane 55610 RAL 9006 aluminium polyurethane
Hempel was selected because its products can be easily applied summer or winter and produce an irreproachable polyurethane finish whichever application method is used (airless spray, brush or roller). The metallic sections underneath the tunnel are embedded in red brick cladding and required roller application. Because applying our product using a brush or roller was not a problem, there was no need to protectively cover the entire structure, so costs were kept comparatively low. Knowing that it is difficult to apply aluminium-coloured paints, and with the positive experience they enjoyed with Hempel on Line 6 fresh in their minds, LASSARAT chose Hempathane 55610 for its homogenous look whatever the application method.
