Learn more about the Seine-Nord Europe Canal

What is the Seine-Nord Europe Canal? What are its objectives and its ambition at the heart of the Region, France and Europe? 

The Canal at home

Do you want to find out about the project closest to you? Find the information that concerns you on the site of your territory.

Site management

The Seine-Nord Europe Canal project represents a new approach to the management of major projects, which is innovative, efficient and sustainable. It seeks in particular to facilitate the crossing of the Canal during and after the work or to reuse the excavated earth and limit its transport.

Management of site rubble

The Société du Canal Seine-Nord-Europe (SCSNE) has the ambition to make a project emblematic of the ecological and energy transition and attentive to territorial issues. The management of cuttings and material flows is a major environmental and societal challenge, and the construction of the Seine-Nord Europe Canal will generate very large volumes of earthworks, of the order of several tens of millions of cubic meters, and will require supplies of external materials (lime, binders, aggregates, steel) and several million tons.

On October 1, 2020, the SCSNE Supervisory Board approved a plan for the supply of materials and the management of cuttings which defines the strategy for controlling the economic, societal and environmental impacts from the design study phase to the execution of works.

Goals

Its main objectives revolve around the principles ofeco-performancePartnerships andinnovation who lead the project:

  • Optimize the movement of earth and organize a management of rational, economical and respectful of the environment and territories by researching and securing all ways of reuse, development, deposit and recovery,
  • Develop and support synergies with the territories and project stakeholders in order to prepare the site upstream of the works and enhance the opportunities offered,
  • Encourage the use of waterways and rail to consolidate flows and reduce the impact of transport linked to the construction site,
  • Organize the operational follow-up of the works to measure the achievement of the objectives, evaluate and adapt if necessary the strategy during the realization of the project.

The 5 key measures

Measure 1

Optimize project design and promote reuse to reduce excess excavation volumes and limit impact on agricultural land.

The reuse of natural earth extracted on the Seine-Nord Europe Canal site reduces landfilling, extraction of raw materials and transport. The SCSNE has launched a study to replace the quarry or manufactured products used to make the waterproofing layer and protect the bottom of the canal with silt and chalk treated with certain additives (bentonite, kaolinite, hydraulic binders, etc.).

Document

Added August 11, 2022 - Updated July 27, 2023

Diagram of material supply and management of cuttings

Practical details

In Cizancourt in the Somme, an experiment made it possible to test this full-scale process in a 400 m2 test basin. For 12 months, optical fibres, probes and electrical wires measured the resistance, permeability and behavior of peripheral dikes. Mechanical tests (erosion resistance) were also carried out. The first results are very positive:

The waterproofing layer composed of silts extracted on site meets the expected permeability objectives
The binder-added silts or chalks provide sufficient mechanical strength for use as a protective layer.

Measure 2

Promote the recovery of surplus land

  • By setting up areas for depots of materials for agriculture in consultation with the agricultural profession and by favoring their recultivation according to a strict protocol defined with the Chambers of Agriculture to restore land of good agronomic quality,
  • By developing synergies with the promoters of related projects (inland ports, works related to land development, filling in of disused canals, requalification of abandoned areas, wastelands or landfills, etc.),
  • By studying the formulation of eco-materials intended for recovery sectors in the form of matter.

Practical details

The Société du Canal Seine-Nord Europe and the Entente Oise-Aisne have signed an agreement for the provision of 400 m000 of excavated material on Sector 3 of the Canal (1 km from Compiègne to Passel in the Oise) for the needs of the Entente Oise-Aisne, for its project to increase flood storage capacity near Longueil-Sainte-Marie. The materials will preferably be transported by waterway. 

Measure 3

Limit the transport distances of cuttings and construction materials by favoring the proximity of resources and uses

Practical details

Each of the locks of the Seine-Nord Europe Canal has been designed by the teams of the Société du Canal Seine-Nord Europe to respect ambitious environmental criteria: to limit the use of new materials, the walls of the locks, called bajoyers, will be composed concrete and local materials such as treated silt. This innovative solution is the subject of a full-scale test program near Marquion: a lock wall has been built there!

Measure 4

Promote the massification of transport in partnership with rail and river logistics players, suppliers and companies

  • By preparing the logistical infrastructures (a dozen docks, unloading platforms, storage areas),
  • By helping construction companies to anticipate transport needs and encouraging them by inserting contractual clauses in the contracts.

Practical details

The SCSNE and VNF have joined forces to enable all future players to better understand the waterway professions and their mode of use. They thus provide a synopsis which aims to provide everyone with a better knowledge of transport by waterway. You will find some feedback, transport hypotheses, carrying capacities and organization of the river sector, and the construction of construction chains. 

Document

Added June 15, 2022 - Updated May 30, 2023

Study on the use of the river for the construction sites of the Canal Seine-Nord Europe - Sector 1

Document

Added on May 30, 2023 - Updated on May 30, 2023

Study relating to the use of the river for the construction sites of the Seine-Nord Europe Canal – Sectors 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6

Measure 5

Innovate and report through an Observatory

  • By joining Rev3, the revolution in energy transition and digital technologies, in order to reuse materials in innovative sectors,
  • Reporting by creating an Observatory for the management of cuttings and material flows, based on data from the "connected site".