ARTIFICIAL BEACH BUILDING ON THE CROISETTE WATERFRONT AT CANNES

Abstract

In view of the persistent increase m traffic density on the Croisette and the restrictions caused by a one-way system which had to be introduced, the Cannes municipality decided to ease the situation by widening the road to handle two-way traffic. Numerous schemes for widening the road on the seaward side were proposed but none were satisfactory for the resulting gains were minimal, and the beach, which is at present very narrow and even non-existent at certain places (see fig. 2), would have suffered accordingly. Consulted on this problem, Sogreah decided to examine the possibility of rebuilding the beach to start with, to be followed by the construction of a new, wide promenade, the net effect being a wider beach than the existing one. Since the beach could not be expected to extend naturally, this involved the construction of a completely man-made beach. This artificial beach building is extremely attractive from a technical point of view, since it presents no snags but it was nevertheless considered advisable to verify that this method could be applied to the Croisette beach. The Cannes Council Technical Department commissioned Sogreah to do a study, the aim of which was to discover whether the artificial beach would be sufficiently stable without extensive maintenance. This report is a record of these studies and the practical achievements they made possible.