Fewer and faster roadworks

Geneva in 2061

In 2061, roadworks in Geneva are rare and short. Under the main streets, utility tunnels carry water, gas, electricity, heating and data lines, so they can be inspected and repaired without digging up the road, as under rue du Marché since the 1980s. When surface works are needed, they are planned years ahead, coordinated between all the networks, and carried out quickly, often over a weekend or a few nights, with prefabricated elements and silent machines.

“1855,” added the Grooters’ living encyclopedia, “and only a year later, there was a railway crossing it.”Grooters, Book 1, Part 16 “2061”

Geneva today

• One reason why works there are so complex is the traffic they must keep running: two tram lines with a tram every three minutes in each direction, from 4 a.m. to 2 a.m., every day of the year, plus trolleybuses every two minutes at peak hours (same source).
• The work is split between the City of Geneva, responsible for the road surface, and the canton and the public transport company, responsible for the rails and their equipment (same source).

Where it is already done

• The Netherlands closed the A20 motorway from Friday evening to Monday morning in April 2014 to remove an old viaduct and put in a new one: a complete 1,100-tonne prefabricated structure built beforehand and placed in a single operation. The whole project was finished a year earlier than required, and the contractor earned points in the tender for completing it quickly.
• Beijing (China) replaced the 1,300-tonne deck of the Sanyuan Bridge, one of its busiest junctions with 206,000 vehicles a day, in 43 hours over a single weekend in November 2015. With conventional methods, the work would have taken months and caused huge traffic jams throughout the city.

How far along

Done somewhere A city or country already does it. Geneva only needs to adapt it.

The path to 2061

Milestones proposed for discussion.

1. 2027Geneva and its utilities publish a shared ten-year plan of all works on networks and streets, so that each street is opened only once.
2. 2031Public tenders award points for short construction times and low disruption, as in the Netherlands, and prefabrication becomes the norm for bridges and structures.
3. 2041Every major street that is rebuilt receives a utility tunnel, and most repairs no longer require digging up the road.
4. 2051Roadworks are rare and short, carried out mostly at night or over weekends with silent machines.
5. 2061Passers-by barely notice when Geneva’s streets are repaired.

What moves it

Human needs it serves

Open questions

• What slows down public works in Switzerland the most: procurement rules, coordination between authorities, legal appeals, working-time and noise rules, or perfectionism? And which can be changed first?
• How can public tenders reward speed and low disruption without sacrificing quality and safety?
• How can construction trades become attractive careers for young people in Switzerland?

Sources

1. Grand Council of Geneva: report on motion M 2816-A, Pour des Rues Basses dignes du rayonnement de Genève (April 2023, in French)
2. Boskalis: Moordrecht, Netherlands, improvements to traffic flows to and from the A20 motorway, project sheet (2015)
3. World Highways: Busy bridge in Beijing replaced quickly (2015)

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