22/07/2025
Soletanche Bachy Fondations Spéciales is building the foundations for Digital Realty MRS5 in Marseille!
After participating in the construction of the MRS4 data center foundations in 2021, Soletanche Bachy Fondations Spéciales is back on-site at the Grand Port Maritime de Marseille four years later to continue the adventure with the MRS5 project. The objective: to build the foundations for Digital Realty’s future data center in Marseille.
The MRS5 Project: Transforming a Historic Site into a Technological Showcase
This project aims to transform a 1960s industrial brownfield into a cutting-edge digital infrastructure: a next-generation data center built on a one-hectare plot. Within this context, Soletanche Bachy Fondations Spéciales is bringing its expertise to bear in constructing the foundations for this future data center.
SBFS Expertise Tackling Major Technical Challenges
Data center infrastructure presents considerable technical challenges: heavy equipment loads, strict stability requirements, and millimetric tolerances on foundations.
The Oligocene Stampian substratum in Marseille, known for its steep hardness, requires specific drilling techniques.
The precast column-beam structures can transmit loads of up to 700 tonnes, with strict embedding requirements and eccentricity tolerances—particularly on low-cut-off level piles.
Thanks to its experience and mastery of the STARSOL® process, the teams developed an optimized design that ensures both stability and performance.
The specifications required the use of low-carbon concrete, with a minimum 29% reduction in CO₂ emissions compared to standard CEM I concrete.
Soletanche Bachy Fondations Spéciales exceeded this goal by proposing an innovative mix design that achieved a 50% reduction in CO₂ emissions, thanks to the support of the Soletanche Bachy materials laboratory.
Additionally, all equipment on-site operated using HVO biofuel, with a total consumption of 29,200 liters.
Key Figures
Two drilling rigs, the F3500 and the HR300, were deployed to complete:
- 597 piles with diameters of 520 mm and 1020 mm
- 600 m² of earth retention using secant pile walls and self-supporting Lutetian formations, at depths ranging from 3 to 5 meters
