The breakdown will be built to block the open sea waves
to allow berthing operations and protect ships and piers.
A new breakdown exceeding 3 kilometers will be built to block the open sea waves to allow berthing operations and protect ships and piers. Its building will start in 2016 to be completed in 2021.
The extension is based on a balance between dredged material of the future basin and the required backfilling volume for new platforms reclaimed from the sea.
A mixture of sand and water will then be pumped from the bottom and rejected behind a temporary breakwater, allowing dredged material to dry and platforms to be consolidated.
Two types of breakwater will be built in Calais Port :
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The main breakwater of about 3 kilometers long in the sea, will protect shipping and port facilities, within a 90 ha basin. Its shell is made of Xblocs® designed to withstand storms and sea rising level in the next hundred years.
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Other breakwaters within the basin will allow storage of dredged material to create platforms. These breakwaters may be either permanent or temporary. These permanent breakwaters protecting platforms from swells into the basin are so called ripraps.
The XBloc® is a simple and robust concrete block with a high reliability in terms of breakwater structure construction. The plant built on the site will produce more than 15,000 Xblocs® : the most imposing ones have a 30 ton weight and about a 4 meter height.