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History
A modern group bearing a tradition of expertise
In the spring of 1992, the friendly takeover bid by Fougerolle on SAE was successful, due to the very strong contribution of the employee-shareholders. In 1993, the group resulting from this merger took the name of EIFFAGE.
For more than a century and a half, the EIFFAGE Group through Fougerolle-Quilley-SAE, SCR-Beugnet-Gerland, Forclum-Norelec, Eiffel, has been participating strongly towards the lasting development of the regions in France and the countries abroad where it has played a part.
Today with the Millau viaduct, the highest cable-stayed bridge in the world, EIFFAGE sets its mark on the 21st century.
1844 | Creation of Fougerolle |  |
1863 | Foundation of Quillery | |
1871 | Creation of Beugnet | |
1889 | Inauguration of the Eiffel Tower Ordered in 1885 by the Ministry of Commerce of the time, the Eiffel Tower was erected between 1887 and 1889, and inaugurated on the occasion of the Universal Exhibition. It remained the highest building in the world until 1930 when the Chrysler Building was built in New-York. | |
| 1924 | Birth of SAE The company Auxiliaire d'Entreprises Electriques et de Travaux Publics, better known as SAE, was founded in Paris by the Albert and Ernest de Marchena brothers, together with Gino Valatelli, a native of Milan and graduate of the Ecole polytechnique. | |
| 1927 | Start of the first work on the Port of Dakar (Senegal) The creation of the port began by consolidation of 2 million tons of rocks, and the construction of 6 kilometres of quays. |  |
1928 | Foundation of the Sociète Chimique de la Route The foundation of a company is often the result of a meeting. The creation of SCR is due to the will of three young chemical engineers, Michel Trux, Marcel Reynaud and Alexandre Colon. | |
1928- 1938 | Construction of the first stretch of the A13 motorway Work on the prestigious site of the A13, the first motorway to be built in France at the western exit from Paris, employed a large proportion of the 500 employees of SAE for 4 years. | |
1948 | Creation of Gerland Routes The company Chimique de Gerland (founded in Lyon in 1908 by the engineer, joseph Courbier), undertook its first road construction project in 1948, subsequently becoming a company wholly dedicated to road construction. | |
1955 | Fougerolle builds the Tancarville bridge With a length of 1,360 metres, the Tancarville bridge was, at the time, the longest suspension bridge in Europe. |  |
1965 | The first stretch of the A6 motorway, known as the "Autoroute du Soleil" (the sun motorway), is inaugurated. . | |
1973 | The Sydney Opera House (Australia) The construction of the Sydney Opera House lasted from 1963 to 1973. The architectural creation was extremely daring. |  |
1982 | Forclum wins the contract for the overall technical management of the Forum des Halles in Paris. | |
1984 | Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy The construction of the Palais Omnisports at Paris-Bercy allows more than 110 events per year to be organised nowadays, with a capacity of 17,000 spectators. |  |
1985 | Beugnet livre le 3 millième kilomètre d'autoroutes françaises. | |
1987 | Jakarta airport The award of the contract for the extension of Jakarta airport considerably strengthens the position of SAE as one of the major companies for BTP (Public buildings and works sector) on the international market. | |
1989 | Louvre pyramid Eiffel constructs the new Paris emblem: the Louvre pyramid, a structure symbolising the renewal of the world's largest museum. |  |
1990 | Launch of the most important RES (leveraged management buy-out) for a French company. SAE bore the Channel tunnel, "the project of the century", linking France to England, becomes reality. |  |
1992 | Birth of Eiffage | |
1995 | The Normandy bridge (2,141 metres long) across the Seine estuary is inaugurated. |  |
1998 | The enlargement of the European Parliament in Brussels is completed. |  |
| 1999 | Following the merger of SCR, Beugnet and Gerland, a major road construction group with ambitions to develop in Europe is created: APPIA. . | |
| 2000 | Eiffage Construction is formed grouping Fougerolle, Quillery and SAE. Norelec merges with Forclum. The subsidiaries of the Group put their skills together to create the route for the TGV Méditerranée high-speed railway line. Inauguration on November 30th of the Meteor underground line n° 14 in Paris - a fully automatic underground line. . |  |
2001 | The RES (leveraged management buy-out) launched in 1990 is unwound successfully. EIFFAGE wins the concession contract for 155 kilometres of motorway in Portugal that uses a virtual toll system. |  |
2002 | EIFFAGE is awarded the construction-concession for the Millau viaduct, the highest cable-stayed bridge in the world.. |  |
2003 | The concession of the Perpignan - Figueras high-speed rail link was entrusted to the TP Ferro consortium (the 50/50 joint venture between EIFFAGE and ACS-Dragados. |  |
2004 | EIFFAGE CONNECTIC 78 was awarded the delegated public service contract for the Yvelines Département's broadband transmission network. The Millau viaduct was inaugurated on 14 December. |  |
2005 | On December 14th, the French government selected Eiffage / Macquarie to take over its holdings in APRR (Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhône), the second-largest motorway operator in France. |  |
| 2006 | Eiffage wins the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) contract for four prisons, in Roanne, Nancy, Lyon-Corbas and Béziers. Eiffage signs a 30-year PPP contract to design, finance, build, operate and maintain the Centre Hospitalier Sud Francilien. The A'liénor consortium, held 65% by Eiffage and 35% by Sanef, was selected to finalise negotiations on the concession contract for the A65 motorway between Langon and Pau. |  |
