When Storm Alex wreaked havoc in southeastern France on October 2, 2020, SNCF Réseau’s crews sprang into action. Within just a few days they had the rail service back up and running so travelers, supplies and equipment could once again reach the remote mountain villages of Fontan-Saorge and Saint-Dalmas-de-Tende.

After that, crews from Infrapôle, Infralog, and construction group NGE (the construction group) came in. They toiled around the clock, advancing a kilometre at a time, to repair the tracks and rail facilities, and secure the engineering structures. Their aim: enable the service through to Tende to resume swiftly and completely safely.

The torrential rain and flood waters had made the slopes along the tracks very unstable. And as they advanced along the track our worksite crews had to be on constant alert. Example: just a few kilometres before Fontan, the wall at Arcatures required major consolidation. The embankment under this engineering structure had been weakened, with sensors and land surveys revealing that it had sunk 14mm—just short of the 20mm alert level! SNCF Réseau was forced to suspend train service between Fontan and Saint-Dalmas in November 2020 so it could be repaired.

As well as consolidating the engineering structure—workers were roped up for most of that work—our crews had to install riprap to reinforce the embankment base. Altogether they worked around the clock for three whole weeks to fully reopen the track and restore Roya Valley inhabitants’ lifeline to the world outside.