Lucille Baucal-Poyac has obtained her PhD following the defence of her thesis

On Wednesday, 17 December 2025, at the École des Ponts Paris Tech, Lucille Baucal-Poyac successfully defended her thesis entitled ‘Parametric approach to assessing the environmental impacts of tunnel boring machine excavation using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)’.
This thesis was supervised by Adélaïde Feraille (Laboratoire Navier- École nationale des ponts et chaussées, Université Gustave Eiffel and CNRS) and co-supervised by Laetitia D’ALOIA (Centre d’Études des Tunnels).

It has two objectives:
· to develop a parametric LCA model integrating the entire life cycle of the tunnel boring machine, from its manufacture to its end of life, including the operational phase,
· to propose predictive models of environmental impacts based on key project characteristics.
The TELT project served as a case study.

The jury members highlighted the value of the work carried out, its originality in relation to a complex tunnel boring machine system, and the significant data collection work carried out as part of a fruitful collaboration between TELT, Herrenknecht, ENPC and CETU.
As a result, the jury unanimously decided to award Lucille Baucal-Poyac the degree of Doctor of ENPC.

This work opens up prospects for a complete life cycle analysis of the tunnel system, integrating other types of tunnel boring machines (mud pressure, earth pressure, etc.) and taking better account of uncertainties related to environmental databases.