An interesting article appeared in the latest issue of the Van Oord magazine about Monaco’s land reclamation project.
With a growing number of people looking to call Monaco their home, this second smallest country in the world has decided to expand its territory by reclaiming land from the Mediterranean Sea.
Land reclamation is not new to Monaco. Since reclaiming its first land in the late 19th century, the country has expanded its territory by over 20% through various expansions.
Now it has embarked on a new project to reclaim 6 hectares of residential and commercial space that will accommodate 1,000 residents.
Main contractor of the maritime infrastructure, Bouygues Travaux, has installed 18 caissons to form a protective seawall surrounding the reclaimed land. These watertight chambers weigh 10,000 tonnes each and are 26 meters tall.
The new shoreline is designed to follow the contours of the existing shoreline so that marine currents will not be disrupted.
Van Oord’s flexible fallpipe vessels Nordnes and Stornes were deployed to fill in the space inside the caissons.
To read the full story, please click here .