Bouygues Travaux Publics is starting work on the first phase of a scheme to create six hectares of reclaimed land for Monaco.
The work is for the Portier Cove land reclamation project, which is being led by SAM Anse du Portier. Total value of the maritime infrastructure works is approximately €1bn (£853 million). Facilities to be built on the reclamation include a neighbourhood with 60,000 square metres of housing, public facilities, an extension to the Grimaldi Forum, a public car park, a marina with pedestrian wharves, a landscaped park, a seafront promenade and a planted walkway running the length of the Japanese Garden.
The construction technique to be used for the maritime infrastructure is a fill enclosed by a band of 18 trapezoid reinforced concrete caissons, 26m tall and weighing 10,000 tonnes each, equipped with absorption chambers. The precast units will help reduce breaches caused by strong swells and protect the exposed areas of the project.
Bouygues Construction chairman and chief executive Philippe Bonnave said: “We are very pleased to have the opportunity to take part in the development of the Principality of Monaco by way of this new land reclamation project which will create six hectares of habitable space, meeting the highest ambitions with respect to sustainable development and environmental protection.” (Source: theconstructionindex.co.uk)
HSH Prince Albert II with HE Bernard Fautrier, CEO and Vice-President of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation
Prince Albert visited Ohio State University to learn more about the university’s research and educational programming on sustainability issues and to give a lecture on climate change, biodiversity and access to clean water.
Electric vehicle manufacturer Venturi Automobiles, located in Monaco, is the sponsor of the Buckeye Bullet Electric Race Car – “a series of student-built, alternative-fuel race cars which run Utah’s Bonneville Speedway” – and is largely responsible for cultivating Prince Albert’s interest in visiting Ohio State. The Prince is especially interested in sustainability efforts at Ohio Stadium because of Monaco’s plans to build a new sports stadium, which he hopes will be a global model of sustainability.
The Foundation encourages sustainable management of natural resources and supports innovative and ethical solutions in the areas of climate change, water and biodiversity.
From on his own research forays and his travels to remote regions of the globe, the Prince is convinced that climate change is the most pressing crisis facing the planet today. (Sources: Washington Times, Ohio State University)
Agricorp Invest SA, a unit of the Monaco-registered group Monaco Resources, has acquired a majority stake in the Macedonian mushroom and vegetable processing plant, Bonum, the company said.
Agricorp Invest S.A., via its wholly owned subsidiary Agri Food Invest Luxembourg, which operates and develops agricultural and food projects in Africa, Europe and Asia, said in a statement it “is pleased to announce a diversification of its portfolio by investing in Bonum, a company based in Skopje and near Kumanovo, in the Republic of Macedonia.” The value of the deal was not disclosed.
Commenting on the deal in a Facebook post, former prime minister and ruling party leader Nikola Gruevski, said the brownfield investment is planned to create 100 new jobs within a year. The plant will be reorganised and its production is expected to double as a result of the investment, he added. Monaco Resources, at 2, rue de la Lujerneta, has operations spanning mining, agribusiness, energy, logistics and financial services. (Source: seenews.com)
Faced with a shortage of drivers, French train operator SNCF will cut the number of regional trains by seven percent on weekdays and four percent on weekends until November 6.
In a letter on August 30 addressed to Guillaume Pepy, SNCF president, Christian Estrosi said he believes that “the region is once again presented with a fait accompli”.
The President of the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur region added that “these cuts are unacceptable to users and that the train operator must offer, without delay, to pay compensation for the damage suffered”. Estrosi has also asked for a formal commitment that the service be restored to normal as soon as possible and no later than November 6 as advertised.
Relations between local governments on the Riviera and the SNCF have been seriously strained for several years, and the regional train service has the second-worst performance in France as measured by cancellations, delays and local strikes.
Pope Francis at Vatican, 2014. Photo: Jeffrey Bruno
Pope Francis has taken a great personal interest in the aftermath of the July 14 attack in Nice that cost the lives of 86 people, and will soon meet the families of the victims of the atrocity at the Vatican. Christian Estrosi, the President of the PACA region, will also attend on September 24. Estrosi said: “I firmly hope that this day will help alleviate the suffering of victims, enabling us to come together in our collective grief.”
Pope Francis had telephoned Christian Estrosi two days after the Bastille Day attack on the Promenade des Anglais to convey his support to the local community. The Pope had also spoken on the phone with Paolo Celi, president of the France-Italy Friendship Association. Celi said: “He asked me to convey a message to all the families involved in some way by this terrible tragedy, all of Nice and the people of France. He is horrified by the events and demands deep and final peace among men of all races, religion, and affiliation.”
Pope Francis does not understand that one can target children and their families that have come together to participate in a moment of happiness, said Celi, adding that “we ask everyone to pray for the victims and he has the strength to do the job”.
Photo: Alisdare Hickson
Anyone thinking of driving to the UK next week may have to change plans, after shopkeepers, businessmen, farmers and police unionists in Calais pledged to block “indefinitely” the motorway leading to the port with a “human chain”, saying they will not break it until the migrant Jungle camp that has now swollen to up to 10,000 people is totally dismantled.
The unprecedented action, due to start on Monday, came as the local head of France’s national haulage federation warned: “Migrant violence hasn’t gone up a notch, it’s gone up 10 floors.”
Lorry driver representatives issued a joint call with an umbrella group of shops and businesses in Calais, the CGT union, farmers and the SCP Police union, saying that they had run out of less militant ways of calling a “halt to insecurity in Calais”.
“What we want is a date for the dismantling of the northern part of the Jungle,” said Frédéric Van Gansbeke of le Grand rassemblement du Calaisis, a group representing local Calais residents. “We will not move until we get a date [for its removal],” he told La Voix du Nord, the local newspaper, calling the blockage “indefinite”.
Starting on Monday at 7 am, the different groups will unite to block the A16 motorway in a “snail” operation to block traffic. They have called on local Calais residents to join them to form a “human chain” starting at the Epopée stadium and moving to the A16.
Mr Van Gansbeke said they were “changing tack” after the state showed it was “safeguarding the migrants and not shopkeepers, port workers, hauliers, tourists and farmers”.
The group called on locals to “take the day off” and join them.
“We haven’t slept for the past six months due to migrants crossing our properties,” said Xavier Foissey, a farmers’ representative.
David Sagnard, local head of France’s national haulage federation, said: “Must we risk our life on the motorway just doing our job of haulier, by being a tourist or simply a Calais resident or policeman?”
Alliance, the French police union, said its officers were no longer able to cope with increasing disorder in the migrant camp. “The French police are not the gate guards of the English,” said Jean-Claude Delage, head of the Alliance.
“Our force is just receiving blows. This has to end,” he told Le Figaro newspaper.
Gangs of armed people-smugglers operating around Calais have started systematically forcing lorries to stop before they reach the port so migrants can break in. Philippe Mignonet, deputy mayor of Calais, has described the main route to the port as a “no-go area” between midnight and 6am.
The motorway is regularly blocked with felled trees and debris by masked smugglers, often brandishing large sticks and sometimes knives. French police responded to mounting political pressure by rushing 140 additional officers to the area this weekend.
The leader of the northern France region said that the border deal should be scrapped unless Britain agreed to the changes. Xavier Bertrand, president of the Hauts-de-France council, called for the creation of a so-called hotspot in the Calais area where migrants could apply for asylum in Britain.
About 200 migrants from Calais are making it across the Channel in lorries every week, French officials and security sources said over the weekend.
The estimate – equivalent to more than 10,000 illegal migrants arriving each year –represents a surge in the number of so-called “lorry drops”, when migrants hiding in the back of goods vehicles jump out after safely reaching the UK. (Sources: Le Figaro, Daily Telegraph, La Voix du Nord)
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