One full year after the first caisson arrived in Monegasque waters from Marseille, the Bouygues Group’s construction teams have completed the enormous structure which will be supporting Monaco’s seafront extension project. A precise operation with only 28 cm of leeway on each side.
This newly completed step for the seafront extension project allows the public to better understand what the completed surface of the future eco-quartier will look like. Although work on the project commenced in 2018, progress was not visible to Monegasques, because part of the work was done in Marseille and other parts of the job were essentially done underwater. According to Christophe Hirsinger, Bouygues Project Director, there has been a lot of construction activity without visible results for the public until now.
17 enormous caissons were needed to create the supportive infrastructure. Each caisson is 27 metres high, 33 metres long, weighs 10,000 tons and required 3,800 m3 of concrete! In a few weeks, the 18th and final block will be positioned at the entrance of the future port, followed by backfilling operations between the coastline and the caisson belt.
Next month, the caisson phase will finally be completed. The next big step will be to create and fill in the inner area, which will be protected by the caisson belt, and will be completed in the fall. From there, the team will be hard at work on several projects, including completing the civil engineering on the caissons and treating the earth which will fill the caissons in order to create a flat and extremely stable surface for the new eco-quartier.
Almost 440,000 tonnes of sand were used to create the new piece of land, which will be completed at the end of 2020. Monaco’s new Anse de Portier district will be launched in 2025.
