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YACHT CLASS N°31 (DECEMBER 2022 / JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2023)
Announced several months ago, the coastal protection reef, which aims to safeguard the port of Cala del Forte from the south-westerly swell, is under construction. Delivery is scheduled for next April.
Written by Aurore Teodoro – Photos : All rights reserved
Olivier Lavagna, General Manager of the Société d’Exploitation des Ports de Monaco, announced the project in an interview published in our last issue (Yacht Class n°30). Last October, the arrival of the off-shore tug MER PROVIDER and its 90-metre long barge carrying around 8 000 tonnes of boulders and inert stone material kicked off the construction work of the coastal protection at Punta della Rocca, a reef nicknamed “banana” because of its characteristic shape that will be positioned near the entrance to the Principality’s third port. “The ‘banana’ will benefit Cala del Forte as it will help to remedy the discomfort experienced in the event of south-westerly gusts of wind”, explained Aleco Keusseoglou, president of the Société Monégasque Internationale Portuaire (SMIP), which acquired the company holding the port concession in 2016.
A total of 120 000 tons of boulders and stones, of different sizes and shape, will be needed to build this structure, of approximately 120 metres and a depth of between 7 and 8 metres. They will be positioned by a mechanical arm capable of operating underwater to create a “pyramid” of more than 40 metres wide at its base, on the seabed, and approximately 26 metres wide towards the surface. Two-thirds of the notably hard and efficient type of limestone, without any negative no impact on the environment as it is made of inert material, come from quarries in the Trapani area (Sicily). The rest, which will constitute the above-water section of the reef, of about four metres high, will be of local origin (Bévéra Valley, above Menton), as required by landscape regulations. Validated by the Ligurian Region and led by Stefano Puppo, engineer specialised in maritime hydraulics who already in supervised the construction of Cala del Forte, the project should reach completion by April 2023. A good way to start next summer season.
