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IrelandA tunnel-boring machine squeezes through Lyon, one junction at a time
Pilot cars and motorcycle escorts guide an enormous load through streets where traffic lights and street furniture leave little room for error.
FranceWhy this story? One of TF1 INFO's most watched videos since yesterday, with 45,955 views.
TF1 INFO: The news division of TF1, a private French television channel owned by the Bouygues group. 1.8M subscribers and 2B views.
27 mètres de long, 158 tonnes... Les as de la manœuvre | TF1 INFO
Things we can learn from the video
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- 0:27The convoy negotiates traffic lights and street furniture during its nighttime passage through the Lyon area.
- 1:05Eli and Sylvain Girault explain how the escort team handles difficult turns and nearby motorists.
- 2:20Octavie Couchard reports that the truck moves slowly enough for pedestrians to overtake it.
- 2:34Earlier footage shows the component arriving by boat, then being lifted and secured onto the trailer.
- 3:17Pilot cars and motorcycle escorts support the convoy on its 500-kilometer journey toward Germany.
Traffic lights become obstacles when a truck carrying part of a tunnel-boring machine needs to turn. In nighttime footage from the Lyon area of southeastern France, the convoy inches through junctions while its escort team watches the clearances around it.
France's TF1 INFO follows the operation in a report showing how an industrial delivery becomes a street-by-street exercise in coordination. The loaded vehicle measures 27 meters long and 5.5 meters wide, with a reported weight of 158 metric tons.
Eli, a pilot-car driver for Capelle Oversize, explains that the team always finds a solution. His colleague Sylvain Girault, who manages transport assignments, points out that these maneuvers are familiar to the crew, but much less so to the motorists beside them. The camera follows one particularly difficult junction before the truck clears it and continues its slow progress.
At the wheel is Misaël, who describes the maneuver as a moment of adrenaline. He also explains the attraction of the work: handling a large load makes him want to take on something larger still.
Reporter Octavie Couchard puts the speed into perspective from the roadside. At the convoy's walking pace, pedestrians can overtake it.
The report then steps back to the preparation. The machine component arrived by boat at Lyon's port, where it was lifted onto the trailer and carefully positioned and secured by Misaël. That loading operation determines what the crew must subsequently negotiate on the road.
The full journey to Germany covers hundreds of kilometers. Pilot cars and motorcycle escorts surround the truck, coordinating its passage and managing other road users. Near the end, Eddy, a pilot-car driver for Société GMS, asks a motorist to keep right while the convoy passes: another small instruction needed to move an exceptionally large machine.
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Where next?
- Channel
- TF1 INFO
- Subscribers
- 1,770,000
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 24,046,309
- Channel views, pace per day
- 3,171,573 (on a normal day: 3,242,139)
- Video published
- November 9, 2026
- Video views so far
- 45,955 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 75,127
The numbers
The report drew about 46,000 views since yesterday, placing it among France's most-watched new news-channel videos.
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What is Eli's role in the convoy?
The report identifies Eli as a pilot-car driver for Capelle Oversize.