Building 40km of strong foundations at Mareterra
A good foundation is the key to a stable structure, and this is something that has been taken into great consideration at Mareterra, as we’ll discover below.
THE SOLID FOUNDATIONS BENEATH MARETERRA
Foundations ensure that a structure is safely fixed to the ground, something which is always essential and is especially highlighted during extraordinary events, such as an earthquake.
At the Anse du Portier project, developers have ensured that the foundations run deep. This is helped by the fact that the buildings here will typically be built in heavy superstructures and following complex geometric patterns. This is particularly true for the ‘Le Renzo’ building located near the animation port, which will have 17 floors and will extend over 126 metres in height. The foundations for this iconic building must reach the geological level of the substratum, which in this case is located about 60 metres deep.
Drilling began last November and will continue for almost 20 months in order to achieve the 1,100 piles needed as the foundation under the six hectares of land that is to form Mareterra. This makes Portier Cove, Monaco, the largest construction site of this type in Europe.
FOUNDATIONS BY FIGURES
– The shortest pile series required for the Mareterra project is 17 metres, while the longest is 61 metres.
– If you put all the piles end to end, they would stretch out in a straight line for 40 kilometres!
– To make all the foundations for Anse du Portier, builders will have to pour more than 40,000m3 of concrete.
– On its own, the sector comprising the ‘Le Renzo’ building requires 160 piles arranged over 3,000m2, or around 15% of all the deep foundations.
– Finally, continuous casting operations for the widest and deepest piles can last up to ten hours, averaging at five to seven hours.
