Monaco ditches plan for Dubai-style man-made peninsula

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Monaco ditches plan for Dubai-style man-made peninsula

The Mediterranean city state of Monaco has shelved a multi-billion-dollar scheme to expand into the sea because of the global economic crisis, its ruler Prince Albert II said Tuesday.

Albert said Monaco, an independent enclave on southern France's Riviera coast made rich by tourism and banking, had been forced to drop plans to build a huge artificial peninsula, which had been compared to Dubai's island developments.

"In the current climate it would be irresponsible to launch a project of this scale," the prince said in an interview, explaining that the project had fallen short of its funding and environmental protection goals.

"The international crisis has forced us to seek better financial guarantees, more security. I would in any case want to reassure myself that effects on the environment would be as limited as possible," he said.

The decision will disappoint two of the world's best known architects, who were competing to design an offshore platform as large as 20 football pitches and costing between five and 10 billion dollars (7.7 billion euros).

The project would have increased Monaco's territory -- two square kilometres of luxury housing, a famous casino and plush yachting marinas, which host an annual Formula 1 Grand Prix race -- by five percent.

Monaco is the world's most densely populated state, and there is little room for new building on its narrow strip of dry land trapped between a steep hillside and the seafront. Work had beem slated to begin in 2011.

Britain's renowned Norman Foster and his US rival Daniel Liebeskind had been selected as finalists after two years of competition, and were due to find out in February who was to build the prestige project.

They informed of the decision to halt the project on Tuesday, Albert said.

Foster designed the German federal parliament in Berlin and the Millau viaduct in southern France, the world's tallest road bridge, while Liebeskind is behind the project to replace New York's fallen World Trade Centre.

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The prince insisted that the decision to halt the landmark project does not imply that Monaco's economy is in dire trouble, and noted that a third of the principality's budget is allocated to capital infrastructure projects.

Other developments under way or on the drawing board will continue, including a new hospital, housing projects in the Annonciade and Condamine districts, and a new yacht club, in which Foster is involved.

Albert said he had not ruled out relaunching the project to expand Monaco's sea front, but warned that the designs so far presented had fallen short of his hopes in terms of environmental safeguards.

"Protecting the environment is just as important a priority as the economic imperatives," he said, promising that a more thorough ecological study would be carried out before any future development was planned.

Details of Monaco's scheme, which would have hosted 275,000 square metres (three million square feet) of housing and tourist facilities, as well as a flagship new public building, had been kept jealously under wraps.

Concerns that the artificial peninsula would have diverted currents and endangered marine life forced designers to plan a one-kilometre raised platform, resting on giant blocks up to 50 metres deep.

Foster was bidding as part of a consortium called the Monte-Carlo Development Company, which included Italian and French construction giants Saipem and Bouygues.

Libeskind's project was championed by the Monte-Carlo Sea Land consortium, comprising Japanese architect Arata Isozaki and Dutch and Belgian building groups Van Oord-Dragados and BESIX.

The sheer scale of the project drew comparisons to the Pharaonic building frenzy in the Gulf states, especially Dubai, where developers have embarked on a plan to create giant artificial palm shaped islands.

AFP

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