Offshore wind focus

HAROPA – Port of Le Havre is planning the redevelopment to enable the implementation of its offshore wind project and a blade manufacture and assembly plant to be built by SGRE. A consortium comprising Eiffage Génie Civil, ETMF, ETPO, NGE Fondations and SDI will carry out the works at the Joannès Couvert quay.

Baptiste Maurand, CEO of HAROPA – Port du Havre, said: “This is a new and decisive step for this major offshore wind project in Le Havre. The beginning of these works is a tangible sign of this so-called ‘old port’ area’s regeneration and its new role consolidating an industry sector of the future in the form of renewable energy.”

Offshore wind ready

To handle the extraordinarily large and heavy components used in wind power (blades nearly 100m long and cargo loads weighing 800t), the Joannès Couvert quay needs modification work to increase its capacity to 25t per sqm.

HAROPA – Port of Le Havre has commissioned works including the creation of two berths along 400m of the current quay: a 200m quay named “Jack-up” where vessels will moor to be loaded with heavy components stored on the quayside; and a 200m quay known as “Lo-Lo” dedicated to import and export of various components.

Specifically, the upper part of the current quay will be cut to a height of 4m. A reinforced concrete slab will be supported on metal piles and the lower part of the existing structure in order to strengthen it.

Execution of this project will require around a hundred 30m high metal piles over 2m in diameter and more than 500 bored concrete piles over a metre in diameter.

Construction of these two quays also involves work to reinforce the sea floor of the Théophile Ducrocq basin. At the base of the quay, a layer of aggregate will be laid to reinforce the seabed.

The works represent an investment of €64.9 million and form part of HAROPA – Port of Le Havre’s €123.6m global port redevelopment programme. The works will run for a period of 84 weeks.