The organisation of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games is an accelerator for public policies which can integrate a unique environmental approach to urban logistics and the process of construction.
On 13th September 2017, Paris was selected to be the host city for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The initial phases of major works on the scale of Greater Paris -Grand Paris- were launched, notably the construction of the Olympic and Paralympic Village, the Media Village, the Aquatic Centre and Arena 2.
With the flow of materials used for work on construction and site facilities and the flow of merchandise circulating during the event, the logistics of the Games and the urban logistics of the villages can contribute directly to the exemplary environmental objectives of the event but also as heritage.
With the aim of establishing a strategic plan for the Olympic and Paralympic Games logistics, Apur carried out a preliminary study in 2018 within a partnership framework with the support of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Organisational Committee (COJO), the City of Paris, the Public Territorial Establishments (EPT) Terres d’Envol and Plaine Commune, Department 93 Committee (CD93), Sogaris, Haropa-Ports de Paris and in liaison with SOLIDEO and VNF.
The study has 4 main chapters:
- The organisation of logistics in Grand Paris;
- The needs assessment for urban logistics during the construction phase;
- The needs assessment of the logistics flow on the various Olympic sites during the summer of 2024;
- The Olympic Games innovation accelerators for urban logistics and the Building and Public Works Companies BTP.
In view of the diagnostic carried out, it would seem that urban logistics could be one of the main components of the heritage and environmental strategy for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games Organisational Committee and SOLIDEO.
The flow generated in the construction work phase and during the event as well as the concomitance of projects in the North Paris sector implies the setting up of a logistics plan that significantly limits the number of journeys made by heavy goods vehicles and commercial vehicles.
The logistics plan would have 4 main themes:
- To develop modes of delivery,
- To develop a new way of organising building sites which integrates platform consolidation,
- To revolutionise the construction process of BTP - (modular, wooden, recycled construction etc.)
- To integrate the logistics as heritage in the new neighbourhoods (Olympic Village, Media Village and the new Arena 2 district - Gare des Mines).
In order to successfully implement new practises which are much more beneficial environmentally speaking, as well as to demonstrate a real French “savoir-faire” in this domain, the necessary agility would probably come from mobilising existing resources and infrastructures but also a new land approach that integrates a circular economy, the recycling of materials, storage and both durable and transient urban logistics.