— News — The Testimonio II tower project in Monaco

Looking back at an exceptional project in the Principality of Monaco

The teams of Soletanche SAM (the local Soletanche Bachy subsidiary), VINCI Construction Monaco and GTM sud have been working on the Testimonio Il project since 2016, in partnership with Caroli BAT and Caroli TP for Marzocco Group and Vinci Immobilier Group.

A few years after the equally exceptional Odeon Tower project, the same teams find themselves working together again on this major construction project on a site which – as is always the case in Monaco – is exceptionally challenging, with extremely steep slopes, limited footprint, highly complex hydrogeology and geotechnics, and a very tight schedule imposed by parallel working on a scale rarely seen elsewhere.

The work on what has become known as the Grande Fouille (Big Dig) will take the form of a very large basal structure containing 139 homes in two residential towers, 54 exceptional flats and 5 sumptuous villas, 1,100 parking spaces, a nursery for 50 children, and the International School of Monaco.

Project status update

The Grande Fouille diaphragm wall was completed at the end of July 2019 after 7 months of drilling with the new Hydrofraise® HC05 with grippers. Arrived on the tip of caterpillar! its performance quickly and brilliantly convinced not only the operators, but also the partners, the customer and the Monaco government agencies involved: ‘Small but Strong’ (which could almost be the motto of Monaco itself!).

Retaining structure work on the ‘Aval Florida’ zone (in the form of a 35-metre anchored wall) was carried out in parallel, with two drilling rigs in place since March 2019. After a campaign of compensation grouting carried out successfully as part of the observational follow-up, the teams completed the final section of this huge wall carrying out the necessary earthworks on the Boulevard du Larvotto.

Parallel working alongside VINCI and the earthworks contractor was intense. However, with progress on the underground car park and the start of work on the first tower, the appearance of the site began to change very quickly.

At the same time, the teams of SBFS were back at the end of 2019 for the ‘umpteenth’ retaining structure on the eastern side of the project, before returning for the last time with a Starsol® on the second semester of 2020 to build the foundations for the school and private homes.

The teams of Soletanche SAM will continue installation of anchores and micropiles until the summer, before preparing for the final return of the Hydrofraise® HC05 with grippers for installation of the barrettes on the Avenue Princesse Grâce during the 5 months before end of 2020. It may be a fairly short window, but one subject to even more restrictive conditions of footprint and parallel working! It is also planned to take a step forward in the pursuit of the Group’s environmental objectives by developing an electric power pack for this last phase. This would be another first.