The Société du Grand Paris, in charge of the new Paris metro, launched Wednesday a plan to strengthen the safety of the Grand Paris Express (GPE) construction sites, after the fifth fatal work accident in early April. "It is our duty that our companions return home every evening or that they do not return seriously injured," said Jean-François Monteils, chairman of the board of the Société du Grand Paris (SGP), during the presentation of his security plan in Saint-Denis.
After two fatal accidents in March and April and the increase in the number of sites under construction where many subcontractors coexist, the SGP has decided to strengthen its safety policy.
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Safety advice on construction sites
Temporary workers who represent a quarter of the staff on construction sites will now have to have the interim safety passport (PASI) BTP. This "certificate issued to temporary workers who have validated two days of safety training, valid for 10 years, was until then strongly recommended," says the SGP which found that "statistically, temporary workers are more affected by accidents".
Among the measures put in place is the day dedicated to safety on construction sites for SGP employees, which will be extended to other partners. The first took place on May 10 when almost all the sites, or 140 sites, were at a standstill. To accurately analyze workplace accidents, the SGP will set up a site safety council, composed of specialists and freelancers who can make recommendations.
The SGP is studying the possibility of "a financial bonus to encourage the development of collective responsibility". These bonuses could be activated in case of many days without a reported security event. Another avenue envisaged is to exclude from future calls for tenders "companies whose audit results and feedback demonstrate a certain number of regular shortcomings". "If the law does not allow these measures, the Société du Grand Paris reserves the right to study a possible normative evolution".
Five workers have died on the GPE site since the beginning of the work in 2015 and there are "thirty serious accidents" requiring "an intervention of medical aid," detailed Bertrand Masselin, head of safety and security of the sites.
The 200 kilometres of the Grand Paris Express include four new automatic metro lines, numbered 15 to 18, as well as extensions of lines 11 and 14. Articulated around a circular line, several branches must connect the airports of Orly and Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, the scientific center of Saclay and the working-class districts of Seine-Saint-Denis currently underserved. The new lines are due to enter service between 2025 and 2030.
