Roads

Cold Asphalt: Colas was founded to operate a patented breakthrough innovation for bitumen emulsion that revolutionized road techniques. Building and maintaining road infrastructure, in in the broadest sense of the term, has always been the Group’s core business. 

 

Almost every Colas unit around the world does road work: mainland France, the French overseas departments, the British Isles, Europe, North America, Latin America, the Indian Ocean, Africa, the Middle East, Oceania, as well as, yet more rarely, in Asia.

In 2022, revenue for the Roads segment totaled € 14.2 billion, i.e., 71% of the Group's total revenue.

Building and maintaining roads

Rond point Pologne

Safe, sustainable, low-carbon, recycled, accessible, shared, fluid, connected... Colas aims to imagine and build all the roads of tomorrow, and is positioning itself as a global integrator of sustainable mobility solutions. Backed by its capacity for innovation and its R&D expertise, Colas creates, develops and offers its customers a full range of infrastructure and mobility solutions designed to be both user friendly and environmentally friendly while responding to the challenges of climate change.

The Roads segment is very diverse, covering a wide range of jobs and skill sets:

  • Roads
  • Highways
  • Airport runways

Urban development

Colas draws on its collective expertise and vigorous innovation capacity to offer its customers urban development solutions tailored to their needs. A range of solutions that meet the mobility and sustainable development challenges that local authorities face include:

  • Cycle paths
  • Pedestrian areas
  • Public transport networks: bus rapid transit (BRT) and trams
     

Environmental projects

Parc éolien Cote d'Or

Against the overall backdrop of climate change, both biogas production and the construction and renewal of wind farms are making a tangible contribution to the energy transition and saving resources. Colas contributes its expertise to its customers' projects by providing:

  • Methanization facilities
  • Wind farms
  • Photovoltaic plant facilities
  • Ecological engineering

Facilities

Plateforme industrielle fontaine

Building on its know-how, Colas has earned recognition for the expertise it develops in the design, construction and maintenance of industrial and port facilities. The solutions the Group offers to its customers are optimized in terms of cost and planning.

  • Industrial hubs
  • Logisitics hubs
  • Port facilities

Safety and mobility solutions

Flowell La Doua

Colas also has safety and mobility expertise that complements its core business. The result is a comprehensive vision for mobility and regional development projects.

  • Road safety signaling activities with Aximum, one of our subsidiaries
  • Our innovations: Wattway, Flowell and Mobility by Colas

Civil Engineering and construction

République Tchèque - Génie civil

Colas also operates:

  • Minor civil engineering and drainage activities, as well as more complex civil engineering (engineering structures)
  • building, in specific geographical zones (new construction and rehabilitation in Greater Paris, Indian Ocean and Pacific islands; deconstruction in France under the Premys brand)
  • deconstruction with a circular economy approach

Major road projects

Route du Nord Afrique

The Group's road construction and maintenance units perform a very large number of small-scale projects, as well as contracts of greater size and complexity.
These larger projects can be carried out in the form of complex contracts such as concessions, P3 (Public Private Partnership), PFI (Private Finance Initiatives) or ASC (Asset Support Contracts). Colas may also take a stake in concession companies, most of the time minority interests, on highway and airport infrastructure, freeways and public transport. 
The Group created Colas Projects, an entity dedicated to managing major projects, to provide local Colas companies with expertise in studies and roll out.