French yard La Ciotat Shipyards (LCS) has presented the environmental features of their upcoming 4,300t megayscht platform, along with other eco-friendly initiatives.
At the presentation, Jean-Yves Saussol, CEO of LCS stated:
Having public shareholders and being active in the yachting industry where environmental concerns are on the rise, we have always been committed to delivering a project which could be a model in terms of sustainability.
According to the yard, the new shiplift will have a positive impact on the natural setting and the biodiversity of the Golfe d’Amour and the nearby Calanques’ National Park. This will be achieved by the rehabilitation of the former industrial brownfield sites left behind from the closure of redundant shipyards.
As part of the clean-up, 3,600 cubic metres of polluted sediment will be removed from the harbour and sent to a treatment facility. As with the current yacht platforms at La Ciotat, the new 4,300t platform will be equipped with rainwater collection system, which will prevent polluted materials from the brownfield sites from discharging into the sea.
Moreover, La Ciotat Shipyards will equip the quays of the new platform with an innovative biomimicry system that will reproduce the natural habitats of local marine species, thus fostering their reproduction.
This feature, which has already been tested at a smaller scale in the Marseilles’ harbour, will cover no less than 600 sqm and thus will form the world’s largest artificial fish nursery to be installed in a harbour.
Copyright : Seaboost
In order to keep the CO emissions and disturbance to the immediate neighbourhood at the lowest possible level throughout the construction phase, up to 98% of the 80,000 cubic metres of the soil that will be excavated for the project will be reused on the site. As a result the number of truck movements will be reduced to as few as 2-3 per day, instead of 25-30 trucks.
Finally, and very importantly, special attention has been devoted to the protection of local fauna and flora, which are particularly rich in the bay of La Ciotat. Protection procedures that minimise the release of suspended matter from the site into the waters of the bay will therefore be double the usual provision.
To avoid disturbance to the dolphins that live in the bay, two double bubble curtains will also be installed, surpassing the noise of the underwater works. Visual monitoring of nearby cetaceans will also be undertaken throughout the construction phase to monitor their well-being.
As part of the above-mentioned environmental protection measures, La Ciotat Shipyards will also set up a comprehensive surveillance system to monitor and measure their effectiveness. This long-term monitoring programme will be implemented during the construction phase and will be maintained during the future exploitation.
According to Alexandre Rolland, Project Director for La Ciotat Shipyards:
The full package of environmental measures that will be implemented both during the construction works and the exploitation phase, represents a total investment of almost €5 million and have been designed after long studies in close partnership with public authorities such as the Calanques’ National Park.
Today, the harbour of La Ciotat is the only French site accommodating megayacht refit projects due to its dry dock. LCS claims that approximately 100 yachts with LOA exceeding 50 metres, or about 1/7th of the world fleet, come to La Ciotat Shipyards every year. Counted in numbers, 11 yachts with an average size of 87 metres were refitted at local facility in 2017.
La Ciotat Shipyards had started global re-industrialisation project at their refit hub in 2017 and has already reported investment of approximately € 100,000,000 from private funds.
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