Water utility plans underground expansion beneath new incinerator site
By Zak Jackson, MonacoViews Editorial
Monaco's water company intends to use the forthcoming incinerator rebuild as an opportunity to create new underground infrastructure below the site.
The Société Monégasque des Eaux is looking to turn a major construction project to its advantage. With the Principality's energy recovery plant due for replacement, SMEaux wants to excavate and repurpose the ground beneath the new facility, creating underground space it will need for future water management operations.
Land scarcity is the driving logic here. In a territory where every square metre is accounted for, building upwards or outwards is rarely an option. Going underground during an already-planned excavation is the kind of pragmatic, cost-efficient thinking that has come to define infrastructure planning in Monaco, where large-scale digs represent rare windows of opportunity.
The existing energy recovery plant, known locally as the UVE, has long handled the Principality's waste processing. Its replacement will be one of the more significant infrastructure projects Monaco undertakes in the coming years, and SMEaux appears determined that the disruption should serve more than one purpose. The scope and timeline of the underground works are yet to be confirmed publicly.