Background

Ecocoast was contracted to carry out emergency protection works at the Fairmont Hotel’s beach in a fast-track project to be completed in a short timeframe so as to not delay the hotel’s opening.

Challenge

The hotel’s beach is subject to high waves and rough seas, particularly during Shamal season. The hotel’s retaining wall was built close to the hotel perimeter with a step down to the beach. The hotel owners wished to protect the hotel’s perimeter as well as create a larger beach that flowed directly from the hotel without a steep drop-off.

Result

Ecocoast developed a new solution for coastal erosion protection using a combination of Trapbag® barriers and geosynthetic container bags. The wall consists of a 2m high Trapbag® wall faced with over 300 geosynthetic container bags to create a heavy duty protection wall that is 15m in front of the hotel’s original concrete retaining wall. On completion, the wall will be buried completely and invisible to hotel guests until a significant storm event brings it into play.

Trapbag® barriers were originally designed for emergency flood protection in the US, but they are also ideal for marine and coastal protection works. Due to their speed of installation and cost-effectiveness, they are a quick solution to short-term erosion protection or as part of a longer term emergency protection plan for one-off or irregular storm events to protect key assets.

We have been working with geosynthetic containers in the UAE as a solution for marine and coastal protection for years, and now using a combined design with Trapbag® barriers, we can offer an advantage in both the speed of installation and price.