History

Launch and beginnings (1954-1959)

After completing his civil engineering studies at EPF Zurich (1936) and his first working experience in the road safety division of the brand-new "Swiss Office of Accident Prevention" (1938), Jean-Louis Biermann joined a mission of experts to the United States.

He returned with know-how and innovations from this country, which was far ahead of Europe at that time in terms of traffic management. He quickly put this knowledge into practice by opening an office in Lausanne in 1954, and actively participating in the Federal Commission assigned to study the possibility of a Swiss highway network.

In addition to highway network development, the Biermann office began to take on projects such as the design of parking areas and transport planning, and began to work internationally (for example, in Athens, Greece, and in the Aegean Sea).

Les débuts de l'activité (1960-1969)

En plus de l'aménagement du réseau autoroutier, la conception de parkings et la planification des transports deviennent des activités de plus en plus importantes pour le bureau BIERMANN qui commence aussi à intervenir à l'international (mer Egée, Athènes).

Diversification and an international opportunity (1970-1979)

To ensure long-term viability, the organisation became a limited company in 1972, under the name Transitec-Biermann Traffic Engineers SA. The executive management team expanded as a result.

Transitec-Biermann’s first contract was to plan transport networks in the Bouches-du-Rhône (France), and soon afterwards, begun work on a traffic and regulation plan for Tunis (Tunisia), and the rehabilitation of the Mellassine district.

The range of company offerings increased and the team of engineers turned to other transport interventions, including development, signalling, public transport, and traffic planning.

In 19XX, when Philippe Blanc and Philippe Glayre replaced Jean-Louis Biermann on his retirement, the company changed its name once again and became Transitec Engineering Consultants.

Growth of activity (1980-1989)

This decade saw a change in the global transport planning mindset – where congestion and traffic reduction became a key concern. The decade also signalled the true beginning of work in France for TRANSITEC, when the offices moved from Marseille to Lyon-Meyzieu in 1980, and saw increasingly close collaboration with a number of municipalities in French-speaking Switzerland.

The 1980s was a decade of large projects for TRANSITEC, including DESIGNING?PLANNING? studying options for the Geneva bay crossing, designing access to and within the Paris-Bercy Stadium, planning the Lausanne metro, and helping with the design and implementation of the Tunis metro.

New offices in Europe (1990-1999)

The 1990s saw a continuation of the previous decade’s search for an overarching, comprehensive approach to traffic management.

TRANSITEC continued to diversify geographically, with new offices in Belgium and Portugal, as well as in Africa (Cotonou, Benin; Libreville, Gabon; and Antananarivo, Madagascar).

Increasingly broader interventions (2000-2010)

In the new century TRANSITEC, as it became known, consolidated its activities in France (with the establishment of offices in Paris and Strasbourg) and opened new offices in Bern (Switzerland) and Rabat (Morocco), as well as in Belgium and Portugal. Leadership had grown to include Jean-Marc Dupasquier, Sylvain Guillaume-Gentil and Francis Caucheteux.

The Belgian team extended its activities throughout Wallonia and the Brussels area with the implementation of Municipal Mobility Plans.

During this time, a European-wide interest in sustainable mobility became more evident, with the development of study programmes for Mobility Consultants, and a renewed focus on tramway studies and their associated traffic design. TRANSITEC became involved with tram transport in Geneva, Strasbourg, Lisbon-Almada, and Nancy, and thus contributed to the dramatic change this brought to urban transport and public space. The training of Mobility Consultants, an innovative function unique in Europe, develops considerably in Belgium.

At the same time, published studies that linked transport, urban development, active mobility, as well as technological innovations, were influential in the way in which transport planners responded to increasingly complex mobility issues.

These are challenges TRANSITEC takes to heart in all of its activities.

Consolidation, innovation, expansion

TRANSITEC continues to remain committed to using its technical and research skills, its passion for innovation, its dynamism and its communication skills to develop solutions to our current and changing transport challenges – whether by growing intermodal transport, using what we have more efficiently, implementing governance structures for effective mobility management, or facilitating innovations for both users and administrators.

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